top down approach

• core assumption


  criminals often operate in a similar way that reflects their personality, so there is consistency in crime, it assumes that the criminal’s personality remains consistent so this means how they commit the crime (their modus operandi) will also remain similar. This can assist in their capture.
• Involves an analysis of previous crimes to create a profile of a likely offender. Relies on intuition and beliefs of profiler.
• 1st stage - data assimilation


  Information is collected from many sources, e.g. police reports, crime scene photographs, pathologist’s reports, etc. An attempt is made to identify the psychological signature, that is, the distinctive actions/characteristics/fantasies of the individual offender.
• crime scene classification


  crime scene classified as organised or unorganised
• crime reconstruction


  Hypotheses are generated about the crime sequence of events and the victim’s behaviour.  The purpose of this is to clarify the offender’s modus operandi (the way in which the crime was committed) which may link one crime to another. 
• profile generation


  offender profile made which includes the offenders’ physical characteristics, behavioural habits and demography e.g. age, ethnicity, social class, type of work, habits, personality, etc. This description is used to work out a strategy for the investigation to help catch the offender. It addresses how the offender should best be interviewed if they are caught.
• AO3 


  successfully been used before to create accurate profiles eg Arthur shawcross was caught , used top down approach to create his profile which was very accurate,strength-can ensure criminals receive the sentence deserved+protect victims.

  however approach was devised based on 36 manipulative individuals who are not likely to be a good source of reliable information and they may not be ‘typical offenders’. The sample was not random or large and the interviews were not standardised, research this profiling method is based on lacks internal validity.