The Top-Down Approach to Offender Profiling (AQA A Level Psychology)

The American (FBI) approach

• A top-down approach (TDA) is used when pre-determined theories or ideas are applied to data - in the case of offender profiling the data comes in the form of the crime scene

• The TDA is also known as the American approach to offender profiling as it was developed, primarily, by Robert Ressler from the FBI’s Behavioural Sciences Unit in the 1970s

• The TDA is deductive as it applies ideas, theories and concepts to the information at the crime scene and bases conclusions on it i.e. it tests an existing theory/idea 

• The TDA was based on interviews conducted with 36 violent offenders, which included some notorious serial killers (e.g. Charles Manson and Ted Bundy) some of whom had committed sexually motivated murders

• The interviews covered details such as: was each murder planned and if so how?; how was each murder carried out?; what went through the mind of the killer when they were committing the murder?; whether each murderer had regular fantasies about killing; what each murderer did in between killings

• The data obtained from these interviews combined with crime scene data helped Ressler and his colleagues to identify two typologies of murderer: organised and disorganised

• These two typologies are used by the FBI as a template from which to examine and analyse crime scene data and ‘fit’  the offender into i.e. does the crime scene indicate an organised or a disorganised offender?

Walter White from ‘Breaking Bad’: a very organised criminal.

Organised & disorganised types of offender

• Offender typologies are based on the idea that each type of offender will use a distinct modus operandi (MO) which distinguishes them and the characteristics of their crimes

• An MO is like an offender’s signature in that it includes details and features of their crimes and may help to identify them from other similar offenders e.g. Homer always leaves doughnut crumbs at the site of his crimes compared to other thieves who do not

• An example of an MO is that some offenders may bring items to the crime scene or take items with them (e.g. ‘souvenirs’ of the crime) and this can tell investigators about the personality and behaviours of the offender 

• Based on the above typologies Ressler and his colleagues concluded that organised offenders:

  • are likely to have a high IQ and be in a professional or skilled occupation

  • are socially competent and have several friends and colleagues

  • are likely to be in a relationship

  • may have been suffering from some kind of negative mental state e.g. depression, anxiety, anger when the crime was committed

  • are aware of media interest in and coverage of the crime (some offenders may even communicate with the police or media as a way of prolonging their involvement in the crime)

• Based on the above typologies Ressler and his colleagues concluded that disorganised offenders:

  • are likely to have a low IQ and be in an unskilled or semi-skilled occupation (or unemployed)

  • are socially incompetent with few friends and colleagues

  • are likely to live alone or have a problematic relationship history

  • are likely to have been abused as a child

  • are likely to show confusion, fear and panic at the crime scene and in general when confronted with stressful situations

  • are more likely to live near the crime scene

• The FBI TDA in summary consists of:

  • Reviewing crime scene evidence

  • Categorising the offender as organised or disorganised

  • Reconstructing the crime in light of the evidence gathered and the type of offender identified e.g. what might have occurred, how the victim was apprehended, why the attack took place, what the offender might have brought to the scene, how the offender might have left the scene

  • Producing a profile of the offender e.g. their personal, professional and social characteristics

Research which investigates the top-down approach to offender profiling

• Snook et al. (2007) conducted a meta-analysis of profiling research and concluded that most profiling was based on little more than common-sense justifications and that profilers were not significantly better at predicting offence behaviours than non-profilers, but were slightly better at identifying overall offender characteristics 

• Canter et al. (2004) - 39 American serial murders were analysed: the results showed that the label organised/disorganised could not easily be applied to the crimes and that there may be a subset of organised characteristics that typify serial murder whereas disorganised murder rarely fits into a distinct typology

Evaluation of the top-down approach to offender profiling

Strengths

• The TDA may be useful for identifying (and subsequently apprehending) sexually-motivated murderers due to the standardised template which can be applied to such crimes 

• The TDA  has been used successfully in 17% of case, which may seem like a negligible number, however it means that the perpetrators of some very serious crimes were caught before they could harm anyone else (Holmes, 1998)

Weaknesses

• The TDA is based on interview data from 36 serial killers in the 1970s which means that it lacks temporal validity and may suffer from several types of bias (e.g. social desirability bias, confirmation bias) which would damage the validity of the approach

• The TDA is not necessarily appropriate for every type of crime as its basis lies in the documenting of (mainly) sexually-motivated serial murder which means that it lacks consistency (and, by association, reliability) across crimes

Link to Issues & Debates:

The TDA typology is overly reductionist and does not account for variability across crimes or that an offender may be organised for one crime and disorganised for another crime (an offender may also combine features of both typologies at the same crime scene) . Additionally the TDA assumes that typology is stable yet human behaviour fluctuates  i.e. people do not always act in exactly the same, unchanging way per situation.

There are many TV shows, films, books etc. on offender profiling but for each sensational murder or famous serial killer there are victims and each victim has left behind people who loved and cared for them. Researchers should be mindful of not perpetuating the myth of the serial killer when they publish their research as there is a tendency to present such offenders as somehow legendary or worthy of respect. This links to the ethical implications of research i.e. how the findings of the research will be viewed and treated by other agencies, institutions and individuals. Any glorification of people who have wrought great harm on others is, obviously, to be avoided at all costs as by doing so the victims and their loved ones are made to suffer all over again.