Offender Profiling: Bottom-Up Approach
British approach- informed by the work of David Canter.
Aim to generate a picture of the offender- their likely characteristics, routine behaviour and
social background, through systemic analysis of evidence at the crime scene.
It is contrary to the US approach as it does not begin with fixed typologies.
The profile is “data-driven” and emerges as the investigator engages in deeper and more
rigorous scrutiny of the details of the offence.
More grounded in psychological theory.
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, Investigative psychology
The discipline of investigative psychology is an attempt to apply statistical procedures
alongside psychological theory, to the analysis of crime scene evidence.
Aim to establish a statistical “database” which then acts as a baseline for comparison.
Specific details of an offence, or related offences, can then be matched against this database
to reveal important details about the offender, their personal history, family background etc.
It may determine whether a series of offences are linked in that they are likely to have been
committed by the same person.
Interpersonal coherence- the way an offender behaves at the scene, including how they
“interact” with the victim, may reflect their behaviour in more everyday situations.
Whilst some rapists want to maintain maximum control and humiliate their victims, others
are more apologetic (Dwyer, 2001).
Might tell police something about how the offender relates to women more generally.
Significance of time and place is also a key variable and may indicate where the offender is
living (as in geographical profiling).
Forensic awareness describes those individuals who have been the subject of police
interrogation before; their behaviour may denote how mindful they are of “covering their
tracks”.
This case supports one type of bottom-up profiling – geographical profiling – because if you look at
the maps, most of the crimes appear in a cluster in the same area, near the railway. Canter looked at
the location of crimes of the ‘Railway Rapist’ and was able to suggest that Duffy had a good working
knowledge of the railways and would live locally in Kilburn, as it turned out he was a carpenter for
2
British approach- informed by the work of David Canter.
Aim to generate a picture of the offender- their likely characteristics, routine behaviour and
social background, through systemic analysis of evidence at the crime scene.
It is contrary to the US approach as it does not begin with fixed typologies.
The profile is “data-driven” and emerges as the investigator engages in deeper and more
rigorous scrutiny of the details of the offence.
More grounded in psychological theory.
1
, Investigative psychology
The discipline of investigative psychology is an attempt to apply statistical procedures
alongside psychological theory, to the analysis of crime scene evidence.
Aim to establish a statistical “database” which then acts as a baseline for comparison.
Specific details of an offence, or related offences, can then be matched against this database
to reveal important details about the offender, their personal history, family background etc.
It may determine whether a series of offences are linked in that they are likely to have been
committed by the same person.
Interpersonal coherence- the way an offender behaves at the scene, including how they
“interact” with the victim, may reflect their behaviour in more everyday situations.
Whilst some rapists want to maintain maximum control and humiliate their victims, others
are more apologetic (Dwyer, 2001).
Might tell police something about how the offender relates to women more generally.
Significance of time and place is also a key variable and may indicate where the offender is
living (as in geographical profiling).
Forensic awareness describes those individuals who have been the subject of police
interrogation before; their behaviour may denote how mindful they are of “covering their
tracks”.
This case supports one type of bottom-up profiling – geographical profiling – because if you look at
the maps, most of the crimes appear in a cluster in the same area, near the railway. Canter looked at
the location of crimes of the ‘Railway Rapist’ and was able to suggest that Duffy had a good working
knowledge of the railways and would live locally in Kilburn, as it turned out he was a carpenter for
2
