Offender Profiling (AQA A Level Psychology): Flashcards

Low IQ, unskilled or unemployed, socially incompetent with few friends, living alone, with a history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships.

Chaotic and unplanned, abundant physical evidence, improvised tools from the scene, little control, and no attempt to move or conceal the victim.

False.

They are more likely to live near the crime scene, reflecting the spontaneous nature of the offence.

Most profiling was based on common-sense justifications. Profilers were no better at predicting offence behaviours, though slightly better at identifying overall characteristics.

Evidence of a distinct organised type, but disorganised murders rarely fitted a distinct typology, undermining the classification system as a whole.

Those that reveal details about the suspect: rape, arson, cult killings and macabre practices. Common offences like burglary reveal little about the offender.

False.

36 killers is too small and unrepresentative, and Canter argues self-report data from convicted killers should not be relied on.

It assumes offenders behave consistently across situations, based on outdated trait models of personality, so it has poor validity.

The typology approach may be culturally biased, as it was developed using white, male, sexually motivated American serial killers.

It assumes personality traits determine an offender's behaviour and crime scene organisation, ignoring free will and situational influences.

It does not assume each crime fits a pre-existing typology. It uses the crime scene itself as the basis for the profile.

The data-driven approach is inductive, working up from small crime scene details to a 'bigger picture', developing a theory from the data.

It was devised by the British researcher Professor David Canter.

Smallest space analysis is a statistical analysis identifying correlations between the behaviours occurring most frequently across offences.

Investigative psychology applies statistical procedures and psychological theory to crime scene evidence to establish patterns of behaviour likely to occur or co-exist across crime scenes.

It acts as a baseline so offence details can be matched against it to reveal offender details, such as personal history, and whether offences are linked.

Interpersonal coherence is the idea that how an offender behaves at the scene reflects their everyday behaviour, e.g. Dwyer (2001) found some rapists humiliate victims while others are apologetic.

The timing and location of offences may indicate where the offender is living.

Forensic awareness is behaviour showing an offender is mindful of 'covering their tracks', suggesting they have previously been the subject of police interrogation.

Geographical profiling, or 'crime mapping' (Rossmo, 1997), uses the locations of linked crime scenes to infer the offender's likely home or operational base.

Marauders commit crimes within their neighbourhood, where they feel safe and know escape routes. Commuters travel away from their neighbourhood, possibly to avoid detection.

Circle theory (Canter & Larkin, 1993) proposes that offences form a circle around the offender's usual residence, which becomes clearer the more offences there are.

The middle of the spatial pattern of offences, which gives investigators the offender's likely base and where they may strike next.

Canter applied circle theory to rapes and murders near North London railway stations, identifying where the 'Railway Rapist' lived and that he was a marauder.

False.

In 2001 he confessed in prison that David Mulcahy had been his partner, which police had suspected but could not prove.

Any two of living in Kilburn, married but separated, few friends, physically small, interested in martial arts, aged 28, and a semi-skilled job.

A content analysis of 66 sexual assaults using smallest space analysis identified common characteristics such as impersonal language and lack of reaction to the victim.

In 120 US serial killer cases, body disposal sites formed a centre of gravity with the offender's base in the middle, most noticeably for marauders.

It is grounded in evidence and psychological theory rather than hunches, and artificial intelligence allows rapid manipulation of data.

Techniques such as smallest space analysis and spatial consistency work for burglary and theft as well as murder and rape.

Across 48 police forces, profiler advice was judged useful in 83% of cases but led to accurate identification of the offender in only 3%.

False.

Chemistry students produced a more accurate profile of a solved murder than experienced senior detectives.

Profiling can go seriously wrong. Police pursued a suspect who was later cleared while the real offender remained at large and committed further offences.

The data-driven approach is largely nomothetic, but incorporates idiographic elements when profiling one offender such as John Duffy.

Integrating investigative psychology and geographical profiling gives a more holistic understanding of the offender than crime scene patterns alone.