Forensic psychology:
Offender profiling: The top-down approach
- Offender profiling - investigation techniques used to help investigators accurately predict and profile
the characteristics of unknown offenders - age, background and occupation etc
- The top-down approach: profilers start with a pre-established typology (psychological theories or
statistical analysis of criminal behaviour) to determine if the offender is organised or disorganised
based on witnesses and evidence from the crime
- Organised offender show evidence of planning, targets specific victim and tends to be socially and
sexually competent with higher-than-average intelligence - little evidence or clues behind
- Could be apart of a family, have children, be employed and skilled
- Disorganised offender shows little evidence of planning, leaves clues and tends to be socially and
sexually incompetent with lower-than-average intelligence
- live alone, leave body remaining at the crime scene, unemployed
- Four main stages when aiming to identify an profile:
- Data assimilation: profiler review evidence - clues, reports, eye witnesses etc
- Crime scene classification: organised or disorganised
- Crime reconstruction: come to a conclusion on how the crime happened and motivations
- Profile generations: profiler forms a hypothesis on the characteristics of the offender such as age,
gender, occupation, behavioural tendencies and physical characteristics
Evaluation:
- P: One strength is that there is support for the difference between organised/disorganised offenders.
- E: Canter et al. (2004) conducted an analysis of 100 US murders each committed by a different serial
killer. The researcher identified 39 aspects of killings such as the weapon used, torture displayed.
- E: Analysis revealed there are features of killings which matched typology for organised offenders.
- L: This suggests that the approach has some validity.
- P: On the other hand there may not be a distinction between organised and disorganised offenders.
- E: Godwin (2002) argues that in reality it is difficult to classify killers as one or the other type.
- E: A killer may have multiple contrasting characteristics such as high intelligence and sexual competence
but commits a spontaneous murder leaving the victim's body at the crime scene.
- L: This suggests that the organised-disorganised typology is probably more of a continuum.
- P: Another strength is that it can be adapted to other kinds of crime such as burglary.
- E: Many profilers claimed that the technique only applies to a limited number of crimes, such as murder.
- E: Meketa (2017) reports that top-down profiling has recently been applied to burglary, leading to an 85%
rise in solved cases in three US states.
- L: This suggests that top-down profiling has wider application than was originally assumed.
- P: One limitation of top-down profiling is the evidence on which it is based.
- E: FBI profiling was developed using interviews with 36 murderers in the US 25 of which were serial killers
the other 11 being single or double murderers. At the end 24 of these individuals were classified as
organised offenders and 12 were disorganised.
- E: Canter et al. argued that the sample was poor - the FBI agents did not select a random or even a large
sample nor did the sample include different kinds of offenders. There was no standard set of questions so
each interview was different and therefore not really comparable.
- L: This suggests that top-down profiling does not have a sound, scientific basis.
, Offender profiling: The bottom up approach
- Bottom-up approach: profilers use evidence from crime scene to develop hypotheses about
characteristics, motivations and social background of the offender - to generate a picture of suspect
- Method of investigation does not use fixed typologies, mostly ‘data-driven’ and based more on
psychological theories, look into psychological factors that could have influenced criminal behaviour
- Investigative psychology - form of bottom-up profiling that matches details from crime scene with
statistical analysis of typical offender behaviour patterns based on psychological theories
- Interpersonal coherence - how offender behaves that could reflect behaviour in everyday situations
- The data can then reveals their personal history or family background
- Geographical profiling is a form of bottom- up profiling based on the principle of spatial consistency- that
an offender's operational base can be revealed by the location of their previous crimes
- Canters circle theory suggest that serial offenders will restrict their work to areas they are familiar with
- Profilers will find clusters of similar crimes and identify ‘centre of gravity’- likelihood of offenders base
- Offenders can lead them to be described in two ways:
- The marauder - close proximity to their homes
- The commuter - travel a distance away from their residence
Evaluation:
- P: One strength is evidence to support geographical profiling.
- E: Canter (2001) researched 120 murder cases of serial killers in the US. Location of each body disposal
site created a 'centre of gravity'.
- E: It was found that the offender's base was mostly located in the centre of the pattern.
- L: This supports the view that geographical information can be used to identify an offender.
- P: One limitation is that geographical profiling may not be sufficient on its own.
- E: It relies on the quality of data that police can provide. Sometimes recording of crimes is not accurate.
- E: There are also other factors that are important e.g. timing of offence, age, experience of offender.
- L: This suggests geographical information alone may not lead to the successful capture of an offender.
- P: One strength of investigative psychology (IP) is that there is evidence to support it.
- E: Canter (1990) conducted an analysis of 66 sexual assault cases. Several similar behaviours were
identified in different samples such as a lack of reaction to the victim.
- E: Each individual displayed a characteristic pattern of such behaviours and this can help establish
whether two or more offences were committed by the same person (case linkage)
- L: This supports basic principles of IP that people are consistent in their behaviour.
- P: On the other hand case linkage depends on the database
- E: Within this database there will only be historical crimes that have been solved.
- E: They could have been solved due to numerous factors such as sufficient evidence or the case was
relatively straightforward to link crimes together in the first place.
- L: This suggests that investigative psychology may tell us little about crimes that have few links between
them and therefore remain unsolved.
, Biological explanation: An historical approach
- Lambroso (1876) suggested criminals are biologically different from non criminals
- Atavistic form is a biological approach to offending that attributes criminal activity to the fact that
offenders are genetic throwbacks or a primitive subspecies ill-suited to conforming to the rules of modern
society. Such individuals are distinguishable by particular facial and cranial characteristics
- He believe they lacked evolutionary development and had a gene that caused them to commit crimes
- This theory suggested that this behaviour was innate and therefore the offender was not to blame
- Lambroso believed that such people had ‘markers’ that linked them to particular offences
- These ‘markers’ are known as atavistic characteristics that make these people different from us
- For instance narrow sloping brow, prominent jaw, high cheekbones, and factual asymmetry
- Dark skin, extra toes, nipples, and fingers
- Physical traits included insensitivity to pain, use of slang, tattoos and unemployment
- Labroso then categorised different types of offenders based of physical and facial characteristics
- Murders were described as those who had bloodshot eyes, curly hair, long ears and swollen lips
- This was based on his research he conduct using 383 dead convicts and 3939 living convicts
- He found 40% of these criminal acts were due to an atavistic characteristic
Evaluation:
- P: One strength of Lombroso's work is that it changed the face of the study of crime.
- E: He shifting the emphasis in crime research away from a moralistic discourse (wicked and weak-minded)
towards a more scientific position (evolutionary influences and genetics of individuals are not to blame)
- E: In trying to describe how particular types of people who are likely to commit particular types of crime
Lombroso's theory in many ways began offender proning.
- L: This suggests that Lombroso made a major contribution to the science of criminology.
- P: On the other hand DeLisi (2012) has questioned whether Lombroso's legacy is entirely positive.
- E: Many of the features that Lombroso identified as atavistic (curly hair, dark skin) are most likely to be
found among people of African descent.
- E: In other words he was suggesting that Africans were more likely to be offenders a view that fitted
19th-century attitudes.
- L: This suggests that some aspects of his theory were highly subjective rather than objective, influenced
by racial prejudices of the time.
- P: One limitation is that evidence contradicts the link between atavism and crime.
- E: Gorinig (1913) set out to establish whether there was anything physically different about offenders.
- E: After conducting a comparison between 3000 offenders and non-offenders he concluded that there
was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics (though
he did suggest that many people who commit crime have lower-than-average intelligence).
- L: This challenges the idea that offenders can be physically distinguished from the rest of the population
and are therefore unlikely to be a subspecies.
- P: Another limitation is that Lombroso's methods of investigation were poorly controlled.
- E: For example he failed to control important variables within his research. Unlike Goring, he did not
compare his offender sample with a non-offender control group.
- E: By controlling confounding variables Lombroso might have equally been able to explain higher crime
rates in certain groups of people.
- L: This suggests that Lombroso's research does not meet modern scientific standards.
, Biological approach: Genetic and neural
- Genetic explanation suggests that offenders inherit a gene or a combination of genes that make them
prone to committing a crime
- Genetics: Genes consist of DNA strands. DNA provides 'instructions' for general physical features of an
organism (such as eye colour, height) and also specific physical features (such as neurotransmitter levels
and size of brain structures). These may impact on psychological features (such as intelligence and mental
disorder). Genes are transmitted from parents to offspring, i.e. inherited
- Christiansen (1977) studies over 3500 twin pairs in Denmark
- Concordance rates for offender behaviour was found for 35% of identical twins in males
- 13% for non-identical male twins
- Crowe (1972) found that adopted children whose biological mother had a criminal record has a 50% risk
of having a criminal record by the age of 18
- In comparison to adopted children whose mother did not have a criminal record had a 5% chance
- A genetic analysis of 800 offenders by Tiihonen et al (2015) suggested that two genes (MAOA and
CDH13) may be associated with violent crime
- MAOA regulates serotonin in the brain and has been linked to aggressive behaviour
- CDH13 has been linked to substance abuse and ADHD
- Analysis found that 5-10% of severe violent crimes in Finland can be assigned by the MAOA and CDH13
genotypes
- If genetics do have some influence in offending then the environment may also have moderate effects
- Offending behaviour may be a combination of genetic predisposition and psychological trigger
- For instance the diathesis stress model has been applied to schizophrenia
- P: One limitation with using twin studies as genetic evidence is the assumption of equal environments.
- E: It is assumed by researchers studying twins that environmental factors are held constant because twins
are brought up together and therefore must experience similar environments.
- E: This assumption may also be applied much more to MZ twins than DZ twins because MZ twins look
identical and parents/friends tend to treat them more similarly which, in turn, affects their behaviour.
- L: Therefore higher concordance rates for MZS in twin studies may simply be because they are treated
much more similarly than DZ twins.
- P: One strength is support for the diathesis-stress model of offending.
- E: For example a study of 13,000 Danish adoptees was conducted by Mednick et al. (1984)
- E: When neither the biological or adoptive parents had convictions the percentage of adoptees that did
was 13.5% This figure rose to 20% when either of the biological parents had convictions and 24.5% when
both adoptive and biological parents had convictions.
- L: This shows that genetic inheritance plays an important role in offending but environmental influence is
clearly also important and this proved support for the diathesis-stress model of crime.
- Neural explanation is any explanation of behaviour (and its disorders) in terms of dysfunctions of the
brain and nervous system. This includes the activity of brain structures such as the prefrontal cortex, and
neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.
- There are neural differences in the brains of offenders and non offenders
- Evidence has been provided by individuals who have been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder
- APD is associated with reduced emotional response (a lack of empathy for others)
- Prefrontal cortex
- Those who have been diagnose with APD have reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex
- Prefrontal cortex regulates emotional behaviour
- This was found by Raine when he looked into brain imaging
