offender profiling

Question 1

what is offender profiling

Answer 1

• Ainsworth (2001)
• “The process of using all the available information about a crime, a crime scene and a victim in order to compose a profile of the (as yet) unknown perpetrator.”
• Information left at the crime scene, in terms of behaviour and forensic evidence, can lead to conclusions being drawn about the perpetrator.
• Offender profiling is not necessarily used to solve crimes
• It is used to help police narrow down the range of potential suspects and prevent any more crimes from occurring

Question 2

what does offender profiling offer

Answer 2

• Descriptions of the possible characteristics of the offender, including: Social (e.g. employment, marital status, Physical (e.g. age, ethnicity), Mental (e.g. IQ, motivation)
• Predictions about when, where and against whom they are likely to commit their next offence
• Possible interview strategies which will elicit a confession of guilt or information relevant to their crimes (e.g. motivation, missing evidence)
• Offender profiling is not used for all types of crimes
• Approximately 90% of profiling is used in murder and rape cases

Question 3

what are the 2 main types of offender profiling

Answer 3

The US top-down approach
The British bottom-up approach