Forensics

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  • Forensics (Offender Profiling)
    • Top-Down Approach.
      • American approach.
        • FBI conducted 36 interviews with serial killers including Ted Bundy.
          • Top-Down Approach.
            • American approach.
              • FBI conducted 36 interviews with serial killers including Ted Bundy.
                • There they then categorised criminals into 2 categories. Organised and disorganised.
                  • Organised
                    • Tend to have a successful life (e.g having a flashy car or being married).
                    • Little evidence.
                    • Show evidence of planning.
                    • Victim is deliberately targeted.
                    • Maintain a degree of control
                  • Disorganised.
                    • Often have a history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships.
                    • Unskilled work/ unemployed.
                    • Lower than average IQ.
                    • Little control.
                    • Little evidence of planning.
                    • Tend to live alone and close to the crime scene.
                    • Spontaneous crime
              • Four main stages of constructing an FBI profile: Data assimilation, (the profiler reviews the evidence), crime scene classification (organised or disorganised), crime reconstruction (hypothesis in terms of events - sequence), profile generation (things related to offender, eg background)
            • Evaluation of Top-Down approach.
              • Based on outdated models of personality. - crimes change due to time and culture.
              • Only applies to certain crimes that reveal important details about suspect. Common crimes like burglary do not reveal much about the offender.
              • Unrepresentative sample - only 36 criminals were interviewed where 25 were serial killers and 11 were double murderers. The sample is too small to generalise to the whole population.
          • There they then categorised criminals into 2 categories. Organised and disorganised.
            • Organised
              • Tend to have a successful life (e.g having a flashy car or being married).
              • Little evidence.
              • Show evidence of planning.
              • Victim is deliberately targeted.
              • Maintain a degree of control
            • Disorganised.
              • Often have a history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships.
              • Unskilled work/ unemployed.
              • Lower than average IQ.
              • Little control.
              • Little evidence of planning.
              • Tend to live alone and close to the crime scene.
              • Spontaneous crime
        • Four main stages of constructing an FBI profile: Data assimilation, (the profiler reviews the evidence), crime scene classification (organised or disorganised), crime reconstruction (hypothesis in terms of events - sequence), profile generation (things related to offender, eg background)
      • Evaluation of Top-Down approach.
        • Based on outdated models of personality. - crimes change due to time and culture.
        • Only applies to certain crimes that reveal important details about suspect. Common crimes like burglary do not reveal much about the offender.
        • Unrepresentative sample - only 36 criminals were interviewed where 25 were serial killers and 11 were double murderers. The sample is too small to generalise to the whole population.
    • Bottom-Up Approach.
      • British approach.
      • Uses psychological theory to analyse crime scene and then tries to generate profiling.
      • They use investigative psychology to apply statistical procedures alongside psychological theory
        • Investigative psychology is a form of bottom up profiling where they try to match details from the crime scene with an analysis of typical offender behaviour.
      • Geographical profiling.
        • Uses information from the location of the crime to determine if the offender lives close by or lives away from the crime.
          • Crime mapping.
            • Involves plotting the location of linked crime scenes to create a "jeopardy surface".
        • Kim Rossmo in 1997.
        • Canter's circle model
          • Proposed two different models for offender behaviour.
            • Marauder: who commits a crime close to their home.
            • Commuter: likely to have travelled a distance away from their home to commit the crime.
      • Evaluation of the Bottom Up approach.
        • Danger in relying on them too much.
        • More individual - less reductionist.
        • More up to date - uses more modern technique
        • Evidence to show that geographical mapping works - Canter and Lundrigan (2001)
        • Difficult to know how much it helps
        • Real life example: Railway ******.
    • Research methods.
      • Questionnaires
        • Unstructured
          • Some questions are thought of before they have been asked
            • Disadvantage: The interviews would be different for everyone (not standardised). Not as scientific.
          • Some questions are thought of on the spot.
            • Advantage: Be able to follow the interview, it will flow
        • Interviews
          • Interviews use both structured and unstructured questions as some questions are necessary whereas some different questions are about yourself.
        • Structured
          • Structured questionnaires are when all the questions are thought of before the questionnaire/ interview.
            • Advantage: More scientific as all interviews would be the same.
            • Disadvantage: Don't have the opportunity to talk about something you are interested in.

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