Summary AQA A level psychology: Forensic Psychology
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Course
Forensics psychology
Institution
AQA
From paper 3 psychology with the exam board AQA. This document includes a wide variety of AO1 and Ao3, incorporating issues and debates into evaluation to enhance your essays.
,Offender Profiling
Top-Down Approach
General
Offender profiling behavioural and analytical tool intended to help investigators
accurately
predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals
The top-down approach to offender profiling is described as the qualitative approach, looking
at the overall picture and using typologies. Based on police experience and case studies rather
than psychological theory, it is regarded as a more intuitive application of a profiler’s prior
knowledge, the profiler has a ‘feel’ for the kind of person who committed the crime.
Analysis of previous crimes created profile of likely offender. A profiler uses this knowledge
to narrow the field of possible suspects –relies on intuition and beliefs of the profiler.
This might be more suitable for extreme and unusual crimes – murder / rape / ritualistic crime
The FBI created the Behavioural Analysis Unit in the 1970s, they interviewed 36 serial
killers and created a classification system based on qualitative data and police experience.
Once photos and evidence are taken from the crime scene, they used 7 decision making tools
to help create a profile:
1. Murder type
a. Isolated / serial / mass / spree
2. Primary intent
a. Deliberate or premeditated, part of another crime?
3. Victim risk
a. High or low (low less likely to be followed – gay / prostitutes / minorities)
4. Offender risk
a. How much risk would there have been to the offender when they committed?
5. Escalation
a. Has the crime escalated or w the potential to escalate?
6. Time factors
a. What time of day did the killings take place
7. Location factors
a. Where did the crime take place? (often known / easily accessible)
This allows the FBI to begin to build a profile.
Every killer has a modus operandi which is a particular method / way they do something.
Collected information above allows picture to build up, helping to classify the criminal into
organised or disorganised.
After they have characterised, they complete the profile, taking all these factors into account.
The profile contains demographic and physical characteristics, a discussion of the likely
perpetrator and any defining characteristics.
,Organised and disorganised
Organised (antisocial) Disorganised (asocial)
Behaviour towards Targeted stranger Victim unknown
victim Planned offense Spontaneous event
Controlled conversation Minimal conversation (avoids)
Crime scene detail Controlled crime scene Chaotic crime scene
Little evidence Physical evidence
Body moved Body not moved
Weapon taken Weapon left
Restraints used No restraints
Characteristics of Aggressive acts Sex after death, sudden violence
criminal Submissive victim Poor hygiene & low IQ
High intelligence Socially inadequate – alcoholic
Socially adequate, charming Attend victims funerals or
Sexually competent change residence
Follows media / police groupie Don’t follow media coverage
Background of Harsh discipline in childhood No father figure (unstable work)
criminal Geographical and occupational
mobility Harsh / inconsistent discipline
Live w partner / have had long Nocturnal
term relationships High school dropout
High birth order Lives alone / near crime
Skilled occupation Low birth order
Poor work history
Evaluation
Top-down approach only applies to particular crimes
o 36 serial killers – violent sexually motivated
o Small, biased sample
However, could be used for some other crimes
o Meketa says helpful for burglary – 85% rise in solved cases in 3 US states
o Retains organised-disorganised but adds opportunistic and interpersonal
Canter provides evidence to support organised offender
o 100 US murders each committed by different serial killer
o ‘Smallest space’ technique used (identifies correlations across different
samples of behaviour) – analysis used to assess coalescence of 39 aspects of
serial killing – like torture / restraint / attempt to conceal body
o Revealed there seems to be subset of features of serial killings which matched
FBI’s typology, providing validity
Classification of organised and disorganised is too simplistic (Godwin)
o Not mutually exclusive, Godwin argues it’s difficult to class one or the other
, o Killer may have multiple contrasting characteristics (IQ but spontaneous )
o E.g., Dahmer started as disorganised but finished as much more organised
o Typology should be seen as a continuum
Original sample too small and unrepresentative
o 36 murderers – 25 serial killers, 11 single or double murderers
o Found 24 organised and 12 disorganised
o Canter argued this was poor, the sample wasn’t large and didn’t include
different types of offender
o There was no standard set of questions asked
o Does not have sound scientific basis
Top-down approach based off behavioural consistency
o Assumes serial killers have characteristic ways of working (modus operandi)
o Should be seen across all crime scenes and should therefore be possible for
profilers to link crime scenes together, making offender easier to catch
o Situationist psychologists (e.g., Mischel) argues people’s behaviour is more
driven by their situation than personality
Behavioural patterns at crime scene say little about how individual
behaves in everyday life
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