Alternative transcript:

the crime scene more likely to have a history of physical or sexual abuse ● some criminals do not fit one of the categories o some display a mix of characteristics • Goodwin (2002) - a weakness of the classification system is that it is too simplistic and cannot categorise all criminals Constructing an FBI profile 1. data assimilation - review the evidence (e.g. the photos and pathology reports) Top-down approach - criminal profiling 2 2. crime scene classification - determine whether it is organised or disorganized 3. crime scene reconstruction - hypotheses in terms of sequences of events, behaviour of the victim 4. profile generation - hypotheses related to the likely offender - demographic, physical characteristics and personality • This approach can only explain certain crimes including: o rape o cult killings o sadistic torture o dismemberment of the body • this means that the approach has a limited application because it can only be applied to crimes that reveal more about the criminal ● o arson ● The approach was based off of 1970s criminals o developed using old fashioned personality models o suggests that personality is unchanging and motivation/ behaviour of crimes is consistent o poor temporal validity- not as applicable to modern crime Support for organised and disorganised Canter(2004): used smallest space analysis (statistical technique comparing data) to assess the usefulness of the top down approach o 100 US murderers cross referenced with 39 organised and disorganised characteristics o found support for organised characteristics o no support for disorganised characteristics Top-down approach - criminal profiling 3 o undermines validity of classification system because it can't support disorganised characteristics Problem with the original sample • 36 killers in the US too small of a sample • 25 serial killers - unrepresentative of other crimes • 11 single/ double murders one culture Evaluation point The approach can only apply to certain crimes, including rape, arson, cult killings, sadistic torture and dismemberment of the body as these crimes reveal more information about the criminal The typology was developed using old- fashioned personality models that suggest personality does not change and behaviour/motivation is consistent. But people change and external factors influence them. Canter (2004) - smallest-space analysis looked at 39 organised and disorganised characteristics and cross-referenced them with 100 US murderers. Found support for organised characteristics but not disorganised characteristics. The original sample that the typology was based off used 36 killers in the US, 25 were serial killers, 11 had killed at least once/twice. Top-down approach - criminal profiling meaning Means that the approach can only be used in application to crimes that reveal a lot of information about the criminals and not crimes like theft or fraud. This reduces the reliability of the approach because it cannot be used accurately for all crimes. This means that the approach has a low temporal validity because it cannot be applied to modern day crimes because personality, behaviour and motives to commit a crime have changed which may invalidate the approach This reduces the validity of the approach because there is only support for organised characteristics but not disorganised, meaning that there is no evidence to support the idea of disorganised characteristics This is a limitation of the approach because it has a low population validity and therefore cannot be generalised. This is because the sample size was too small, is ethnocentric, only portrays one type of crime. 4