Offender profiling:The bottom-up approach -A-Level Psychology

-aims to generate a picture of the offender e.g. characteristics,routine behaviour and social background through systematic analysis of evidence at the crime scene.

-does not begin with fixed typologies.

Investigative psychology:

-applies statistical procedures alongside psychological theory to the analysis of crime scene evidence.

-to establish patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur/co-exist across crime scenes.

-a statistical database is developed which is used as a baseline for comparison.

-specific details of an offence can be matched against the database to reveal important details about the offender e.g. personal history.

-can also determine whether a series of offences are linked.

-interpersonal coherence -the way an offender behaves at the scene.

-the significance of time and place is also a key variable-geographical profiling.-forensic awareness describes those individuals who have been the subject of police interrogation before so their behaviour may denote how mindful they are of covering their tracks.

Geographical profiling:

-uses information to do with the location of linked crime scenes to make inferences about the likely home or operational base of the offender(crime mapping).

-can be used alongside psychological theory to create hypotheses about how the offender is thinking as well as their modus operandi.

-the assumption is that serial offenders will restrict their work to geographical areas they are familiar with,and so understanding the spatial pattern of their behaviour provides investigators with a ‘centre of gravity’ which is likely to include the offender’s base.It also may help investigators make educated guesses about where the offender is likely to strike next-‘jeopardy surface’.

-Canter’s circle theory:

The marauder-who operates in close proximity to their home base.

The commuter-who is likely to have traveled a distance away from their usual residence.

-The pattern of offending is likely to form a circle around their usual residence.Such spatial decision making can offer the investigative team important insight into the nature of the offence-whether the crime was planned or opportunistic,mode of transport,employment status.

Evaluation:

Scientific basis-Canter’s argued that bottom-up profiling is more objective and scientific than the top-down approach as it is more grounded in evidence and psychological theory,and less driven by speculation.With the aid of advanced artificial intelligence,investigators are able to manipulate geographical,biographical and psychological data quickly to produce insights that assist in the investigation.Investigative psychology has recently expanded to include such areas such as suspect interviewing and examination of material presented in court,which supports its utility in all aspects of the judicial process.

Evidence supports geographical profiling-Samantha Lundrigan and David Canter collated information from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the USA.Smallest space analysis revealed spatial consistency in the behaviour of the killers.