OFFENDER PROFILING
Copson & Holloway: profiling led to identification of an offender in less
than 3% of 184 cases
Holmes: only 17% of the time did profiling lead to an arrest
FBI: interviewed 36 sexually motivated serial killers and formed profiles,
four stages of constructing a profile: data assimilation, crime scene
classification, crime reconstruction, profile generation
Canter at al: there are typical characteristics for an organised offender but
there is no clear distinction between organised and disorganised - some
behaviours are not mutually exclusive
Canter: developed the bottom-up approach, including investigative
psychology, also developed his circle theory: marauder or commuter
Rossmo: described geographical profiling, a statistical approach used with
psychological theory
Railway Rapist (John Duffy): profiled by Canter, Duffy matched 13 of the
17 characteristics such as age, occupation and predicted he would have a
history of violence - Duffy raped his wife at knifepoint
BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS
Lombroso: criminals are 'genetic throwbacks', a primitive sub-species
known as atavists, he examined the features of nearly 400 dead Italian
criminals and nearly 4000 living Italian convicts - 40% of criminal acts
could be accounted for by atavistic characteristics
Lange: twin study: 77% of MZ twins had a co-twin in prison compared to
12% for DZ
Mednick et al: adoption study: if biological parents were convicted
criminals, the child was nearly twice as likely to be convicted of a crime; if
siblings raised in different environments had a biological father convicted
of a crime, 30% of both children committed crime
Tiihonen et al: genetic analysis of almost 900 offenders revealed
abnormalities on 2 genes that may be associated with violent crime:
MAOA (linked to aggressive behaviour) and CDH13 (linked to substance
abuse & ADD) - individuals with this high-risk combination were 13x more
likely to have a history of violent behaviour
Copson & Holloway: profiling led to identification of an offender in less
than 3% of 184 cases
Holmes: only 17% of the time did profiling lead to an arrest
FBI: interviewed 36 sexually motivated serial killers and formed profiles,
four stages of constructing a profile: data assimilation, crime scene
classification, crime reconstruction, profile generation
Canter at al: there are typical characteristics for an organised offender but
there is no clear distinction between organised and disorganised - some
behaviours are not mutually exclusive
Canter: developed the bottom-up approach, including investigative
psychology, also developed his circle theory: marauder or commuter
Rossmo: described geographical profiling, a statistical approach used with
psychological theory
Railway Rapist (John Duffy): profiled by Canter, Duffy matched 13 of the
17 characteristics such as age, occupation and predicted he would have a
history of violence - Duffy raped his wife at knifepoint
BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS
Lombroso: criminals are 'genetic throwbacks', a primitive sub-species
known as atavists, he examined the features of nearly 400 dead Italian
criminals and nearly 4000 living Italian convicts - 40% of criminal acts
could be accounted for by atavistic characteristics
Lange: twin study: 77% of MZ twins had a co-twin in prison compared to
12% for DZ
Mednick et al: adoption study: if biological parents were convicted
criminals, the child was nearly twice as likely to be convicted of a crime; if
siblings raised in different environments had a biological father convicted
of a crime, 30% of both children committed crime
Tiihonen et al: genetic analysis of almost 900 offenders revealed
abnormalities on 2 genes that may be associated with violent crime:
MAOA (linked to aggressive behaviour) and CDH13 (linked to substance
abuse & ADD) - individuals with this high-risk combination were 13x more
likely to have a history of violent behaviour
