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• +

  • support for organised category
  • Test the organised-disorganised typology which is central Canter et al conducted an analysis of 100 US murders each committed by a different serial killer
  • Smallest space analysis used - a statistical technique identifies correlations across diff samples of behaviour
  • Analysis was used in order to assess the co-occurrence of 39 aspects of serial killings
  • Included such things as whether there was torture
  • Revealed that there seem to be a subset of features of many serial killings which matched the FBl's typology for organised offenders

  has some validity
• COUNTERPOINT:

  • However, many studies suggest that the organised and disorganised types are not mutually exclusive
  • There are a variety of combinations that occur at any given murder scene
  • For instance, Godwin argues that, in reality, it is difficult to classify killers as one or the other type
  • A killer may have multiple contrasting characteristics, such as high intelligence and sexual competence, but commits a spontaneous murder leaving the victim's body at the crime scene.

  This suggests that the organised-disorganised typology is probably more of a continuum.
• LIMITATION:

  • Evidence on which it is based
  • As we have seen, FBI profiling was developed using interviews with 36 murderers in the US - 25 of which were serial killers, the other 11 being single or double murderers
  • At the end of the process, 24 of these individuals were classified as organised offenders and 12 were disorganised
  • Canter et al have argued that the sample was poor - the FBI agents did not select a random or even a large sample
  • There was no standard set of questions so each interview was different and therefore not really comparable

  does not have a sound, scientific basis