Detailed summary notes of Forensic Psychology
Includes Key Research, Key Psychologists, Terminology and Evaluations for each topic
Covers approaches to offender profiling, explanations for offending and dealing with offender behaviour
Crime= An act committed in violation of the law where the consequence of conviction by
court is punishment
Offender Profiling= A behavioural and analytic tool that is intended to help investigators
accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals
The Top-Down Approach:
● Originated in America as a result of the work of the FBI in the 1970s
● The behavioural science unit gathered data from interviews with 36 sexually driven
serial killers
● Hazelwood and Douglas suggested that there are two types of serial killers:
Organised Offenders= Offenders who show evidence of planning, targeting the victims and
tend to be socially and sexually competent with higher than average intelligence
Disorganised Offenders= Offenders who show little evidence of planning, leave clues and
tend to be socially and sexually incompetent with lower than average intelligence
Organised Offenders Disorganised Offenders
● average/above average intelligence ● No social skills
● married/children ● Unhealthy relationships
● Good appearance/hygiene ● Live alone/with parents
● Long term relationships ● Can’t hold down a job
● Charming ● Not much human contact
● Good confidence/job/house/car ● Not much effort with appearance
● Social and appears normal ● Not much thought/planning
● Can understand right from wrong ● Lacking in confidence
● Good at fooling people ● Suffer from mental illnesses
● Narcissistic and don’t suffer from ● Won’t travel to kill
hallucinations and delusions ● Not in serious relationships or
● planning/deceit/stalking/scheduling involved in society
● “Improve” on mistakes and fantasise ● “Blitz Attack”- surprise the victim
about the next kill ● Victims chosen at random
● Multiple relevant scenes ● No effort to hide the body or weapon
● Clean up the crime scene and
closely follow news reports and
investigations
● Keep trophies/revisit scenes
Evaluations of the Top Down Approach:
● Only applies to crimes that reveal important information about about the offender
(e.g. rape/arson/cult killings). More common crimes (e.g. burglary/property
destruction) don’t lead to profiling as crime scene reveals very little about the
offender
, ● Based on outdated models of personality- based on the assumption that offenders
have patterns of behaviour and motivations that remain consistent. Alison et al
(2002)- informed by old fashioned approaches to personality that see behaviour as
driven by dispositional traits rather than external factors that may be constantly
changing
● Evidence doesn’t support disorganised offenders- David Canter et al (2004)-
analysed data from 100 murders in America. Details were referenced to 39
characteristics thought to be typical of both types of killers, however findings
suggested evidence of an organised type but not a disorganised type
● Does not take into account the fact that killers can be a mix of both types or the fact
that they can change
● Snook (2007)- canadian major crime officers were in agreement that criminal
profiling helped to solve cases (94%) and is a valuable tool (88.2%)
Bottom Up Approach:
● Begins with the crime and then builds up a profile of the offender
Investigative Psychology:
● Patterns that occur or co-exist across crime scenes are used to generate data about
the offender
● Patterns can include factors such as:
1. Interpersonal Coherence- clues about how the offender acted at the crime scene
may give indications of how they behave in everyday life, such as they way they
interacted with the victim
2. Significance of Time and Place- is there a pattern that suggests a particular centre of
gravity where the offender may be based?
3. Forensic Awareness- is there an awareness of knowledge of forensics that might
suggest they may have had contact with the police before or understand how they
work?
Geographical Profiling:
● A method of bottom-up profiling- Rossmo (1997) stated that an offender’s operational
base of possible future offences are revealed by the geographical location of their
previous crimes
Circle Theory= Proposes two models of offender behaviour which can be identified through
geographical profiling- marauders and commuters
Commuter Model=. Commuters are likely to have travelled a distance from their usual
residence
Marauder Model= operate in close proximity to their home base
How Useful is Offender Profiling?
, ● Gary Copson (1995) surveyed 48 police departments and found that the advice
provided by the profiler was judged as “useful” in 83% of cases
● However, the same study revealed that it led to accurate identification of the offender
in only 3% of cases
Atavistic Form= An early biological explanation which proposed that criminals are a sub
species of genetic throwbacks that cannot conform to the rules of modern society. Such
individuals are distinguishable by particular facial and cranial characteristics
● Lambroso (1876) suggested that criminals are “genetic throwbacks” so they can be
identified from physical markers
Criminals:
● Strong, prominent jaw
● High cheekbones
● Dark skin
● Extra toes/nipples/fingers
Murderers:
● Bloodshot eyes
● Curly hair
● Long ears
Sexual Deviants:
● Glinting eyes
● Swollen, fleshy lips
Fraudsters:
● Thin/reedy lips
Other Non-Physical Traits:
● Unemployment
● Tattoos
● Use of criminal slang
● Lambroso investigated facial/cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts both
living and dead
● After examining 3839 living criminals, he concluded that 40% of the crimes were
accounted for by atavistic characteristics
Eugenics= genetically “unfit” people should be prevented from breeding
● This links to Lambroso’s ideas as it also suggests the idea that people can be
genetically predisposed to being a criminal
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