Creating a Profile

• 'top-down' approach uses previously known information about similar crimes and apllies existing knowledge to each new crime scene
• profilers use the 'big picture' of the crime and then looks for smaller details that support the 'big picture'
• referred to as the Deductive Method as evidence fits the hypothesis
• american approach- used by FBI
• based on belief that different types of criminals will have similar characteristics & behave in similar ways 
• created typologies through interviews with 36 convicted serial killers e.g. ted bundy
• created 57-page document asking offenders to indentify factors leading up to the criminal event

Stage 1- Data assimilation:

• The collection of all information from as many sources as possible

Stage 2- Crime Classification

• Putting the crime in a category according to the evidence
• did they hide the body? organised or dissorganised? etc..

Stage 3- Crime Reconstruction

• Create a hypothesis about behaviour of victims and modus operandi of the criminal based on a reconstruction of the crime

Stage 4- Profile generation

• Development of a profile which contains suggestions of the offenders apperance and characteristics

• 'Bottom up' approach based on profiler gathering info on each crime and forming conclusions about what happened based on those details only
• Inductive method as the evidence forms the hypothesis
• British approach
• developed by David Canter
• Approach looks for inconsistencies in offender's behaviour during the crime 
• British approach makes no initial assumption about the criminal until a statistical analysis has been carried out on details of the crime
• useful method as it ahs led to the development of the 'five factor' theory
• Shows how an offenders behaviour changes over a series of offences 

• The theory proposes two models of offender behaviour 'marauder' and 'commuter' model

Maurauder Model

• Assumes that an offender will go from their home base to commit crimes

Commuter model

• Assumes that an offender will travel a distance from their home base before commiting a crime

• Case study approach to profiling involves range of difference methods being used to collect info that will lead to the identification of the characteristics of a potential offender
• The 'Railway ******' caste study used by Canter 

How the profile was created

• 1988, canter was invited by the metropolitan police to draw up a profile of the ******.
• examined each detail of the crime to build up a profile of attacker spersonality

two significant themes in the attacks

• The attacker seemed to try and relate to victim- suggests previous relationships which were abusive
• The minimum amount of force was used to dominate the victim-suggests a weak,insecure individual

• Canter also studied the location of the crimes over the previous 4 years, laying transparent acetate sheets with crime scenes marked on top of a map
• helped him build up a geographic profile which helped pinpoint the attackers residential location
• suggested the killer was a marauder
• Other features of the profile that were correct include living in kilburn-which he did, physically small-5'4", interest in martial arts-member of a martial arts club and semi-skilled job-worked as carpenter for national rail