FORENSICS - Bottom up approach
- Created by: EmilyEther
- Created on: 23-11-18 10:06
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- Bottom up approach
- Geographic profiling
- looks at location where crime(s) was committed - people commit crimes in places they feel safe, secure and confident in
- David Canter: circle theory - 'commuters' and 'marauders'
- marauders - commit crimes in a circle in one area close to where they currently live/work
- commuter: a person who travels when they commit their crimes - used to live/work there etc
- Canter and Larkin (1993) - studied 45 sexual assults. Support for their model, but 91% of offenders were identified as marauders - if almost all offenders were mara, classification is not useful
- Petherick (2006) - flaw in model: if a person's home base is not actually at the centre of the circle, means police may look in the wrong place.
- Representing ranges in circle is over-simplistic - in cities the patterns may form another shape
- Canadian models: 'Brentingham model' - location of crime is determined by offenders home, work and leisure areas.
- Rossmo suggested that this could be reversed ie use a crime location to determine likely residence
- formula to do the geographical profiling looks at the level/height of the ground
- police say they find it useful but techniques not often used
- some of the distinctions applied and the theories used are unnecessary (marauders / commuters) or over simplified (circle theory)
- not clear that 'ordinary' police work would not have caught these criminals
- Rossmo (1999) - may not solve crimes specifically, it is useful in prioritising house-to-house searches or identifying place where DNA can be found
- profiling can't distinguish between multiple offenders in one area
- method is limited to spatial behaviour (not any personality characteristics)
- geographical profiling more useful when combined with info about time
- General
- British version of profiling
- comes from: investigative psychology and geographic profiling
- based on data and statistical analysing
- Eg: ‘70% likely that he has a low paying job’, ‘ 20% chance he is married’
- based on data and statistical analysing
- Canter: criminal consistency hypothesis: criminals act in a consistent manner, interpersonal consistency - regarding relationships. Eg. person killing prostitutes in a frenzy - probably has bad relationships with women, often uses prostitutes etc. Spatial (geographical) consistency - offences happen within a known area
- Investigative psychology
- 5 factor analysis
- Interpersonal coherence
- Assumption that behaviour is consistent across situations - everyday behaviour is similar to the way a crime is committed (aggressive person = aggressive crime)
- Criminal characteristics
- Placing criminals into categories
- Time + location
- Similar to time and location factors in top-down approach
- Positioning and timing of crime gives clues as to where criminal may live or work
- Criminal career
- Degree of criminal experience offender have
- How their pattern of crime might progress
- Forensic awareness
- Offenders that show awareness to how much evidence they leave (eg. cleaning crime scene - probably have committed crime before and been through criminal justice system)
- Interpersonal coherence
- 5 factor analysis
- Successes and failure
- John Duffy 'The Railway Murderer'
- police focused on Colin Stagg for Rachel Nickell's murder
- didn't make links between murders and rapes
- ruled out real killer as he was taller than the profile said he should be
- M25 ******
- Evaluation
- has potential to be scientific and objective
- doesn't rely on hunches or speculation of motives
- only as good as data / formula used (coming from CAUGHT criminals)
- helpful to narrow down lists of suspects or areas (eg. for DNA testing)
- may mislead if criminal doesn't fit pattern
- felt to be more useful than it actually is
- has potential to be scientific and objective
- Geographic profiling
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