AO1

• Top-down methods are where the profiler has experience and can use the evidence at the crime scene to develop a profile of the likely criminal eg age and occupation
• They assign offenders to one of two predetermined categories made by the FBI: disorganised and organised
• Organised: shows evidence of planning, targets victim, tends to be socially and sexually contempt and above average intelligence
• Disorganised: shows little planning, leaves clues, socially and sexually incompetent and lower than average IQ
• stages in the construction of an FBI profile:

  1. data assimilation (reviewing the evidence eg photographs and reports recorded from scene)
  2. crime scene classification (organised or disorganised)
  3. hypothesis about behaviour of victim are formed
  4. which are then linked to the likely offender
• The top-down approach was developed by the FBI during the 1970s based on interviews with 36 convicted murderers including Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. A database was then compiled to help detectives pick out characteristics of the types of people that committed such crimes.
• In a top-down approach the profiler looks at other similar cases (where criminals have been interviewed) in order to build a picture of typical offender profiles.