FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY

1. FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY A2 PSYB3 Question 8 Lessons 6

2. Learning Objectives: By the end of the lesson you should be able to: Describe (AO1) the methods of typological and geographical profiling. Evaluate with reference to research (AO2) the methods of typological and geographical profiling. Evaluate (AO2) the use of offender profiling.

4. Activity • Someone has defaced the entrance to the local primary school, using spray paint. Write a profile of a possible suspect, considering the following factors: • Social: employment , education, family background • Physical: age, race, gender • Mental: IQ, motivation to commit criminal offence

5. Definitions & Aims Profiling: an attempt to produce a description or profile of an offender by analysing the characteristics of the offence and other background information • Aims • Descriptions of factors:- • Social: employment , marriage • Physical: age, race • Mental: IQ, motivation characteristics of criminal

6. First Profile?: ‘Jack the Ripper’ • First known case of killer profiling-Dr. Thomas Bond examined the victim-Mary Kelly • Determined some personality traits of the killer from victim • Often considered the first recorded serial killer because of the nature of the crimes (a typical sexual motive).

7. Profiling • Copson (1995) police need 4 types of information from profilers: • The type of person who committed the crime • How great a threat they pose in the future • The possibility the case is linked to others • How the police should interview the suspects; what strategies they should use.

8. Relevant for homicides or serial crimes of the following types: • sadistic torture in sexual assaults • evisceration • post-mortem slashing & cutting • motiveless fire-setting or arson • lust and mutilation murder • rape • satanic & ritualistic crime • pedophilia

9. Typological approach to profiling • We will learn • How the FBI developed categories for offenders • The characteristics of these categories • How to apply these categories to an example

10. A dead man’s shredded body is found by the CSI team. What do they need to find out who killed him?

11. Who do you think did it? We need to look at the crime scene and work it out. Usually they leave clues for us.

12. FBI wrote the Crime classification manual based on interviews with 36 serial sex offenders. What might be the problems with this? Offenders described in detail how they committed their crimes; planning and organising, choosing their victim etc. Problem? Spoke to male serial sex offenders only. Problem?

13. The FBI put offenders into two categories: Organised offenders are more systematic Disorganised offenders behaviour tends to be erratic and frenzied

14. The door has been forced. The killer seems to have been waiting for him in the garden. The body was hidden and the crime scene was tidied up. What type of offender is this?

15. AO1: Geographical profiling • A field of investigative psychology, the type of profiling method used in the UK, which involves generalising from the locations of linked crime scenes to the likely home /work/social base of the offender. • The assumption is that most offenders like to operate in areas they know well- many offenders have a crime range of as little as 2 miles (Canter & Gregory, 1994). • A distinction has been drawn between : • marauders who like to commit crimes in their own neighbourhoods, and • commuters who travel to commit their crimes.

16. AO1: Geographical profiling • David Canter is the well-known geographical profiler in the UK and he argues that this method is built on psychological theory: • People store information about their lives in schemas/mental maps – these are organised knowledge of our experiences. According to Canter, each person’s mental map is highly individual and the location of crime scenes can be used to infer where the offender is based and also other information about the offender’s likely interests, employment and relationships.A surveillance area for the next/subsequent crimes can then be set-up. • According to Canter, the following three characteristics are important: • Interpersonal Coherence in (1) behaviour, e.g. amount of abuse, and (2) similarity between victims, e.g. all students,  • Time and Place – spatial factors • Forensic Information

17. AO1: Geographical profiling • The geographical technique uses a computer system called Criminal Geographic Targeting. Spatial data are analysed to produce a three-dimensional model known as jeopardy surface. The codes produced are then superimposed onto a map where the crimes have taken place.

18. Video: DAVID CANTER USES GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILING TO REVEAL THE IDENTITY OF JACK THE RIPPER.

19. Learning Objectives: By the end of the lesson you should be able to: Describe (AO1) the method of geographical profiling. Evaluate with reference to research (AO2) the method of geographical profiling. Evaluate (AO2) the use of offender profiling.

20. AO2: COMPARISONS • Unlike the typology approach, geographical profiling is founded on psychological theory about how people represent and store memories and how this method of organisation of information could give investigators clues about the likely perpetrator. • Geographical profiling is also useful for ALL types of crimes, not just violent crimes (as for the typology approach). Goodwill and Alison (2006) found that geographical information was more useful than information about the timing of the offence, crime scene information and details about the dwelling for linking cases that had been committed by a single burglar.

21. AO2: RESEARCH • Geographical profiling was used to great effect in the case of the RAILWAY RAPIST . Between 1982 and 1986 a total of 24 sexual assaults and 3 murders occurred in the London area. Canter’s profile led to the arrest of John Duffy and key features of the profile matched Duffy’s life – he worked as a carpenter on the Railways, he was violent to his ex-wife from whom he was separated – as suggested in the profile. • Research also supports the effectiveness of the method: Lundrigan and Canter (2001) studied the spatial behaviour of 120 serial killers in the USA by analysing the distances between the offenders’ home locations and body disposal sites. They found that the offenders’ homes were in the centre of the pattern. This study shows that spatial information about body disposal sites might be useful in locating an offender’s base supporting the method of geographical profiling.

22. AO2: GENERAL EVALUATION • However, although information about location of crime is important, it is not enough from which to identify the base from which the perpetrator works. Canter and Youngs (2008) believe that both geographical and psychological information must be combined and that just having details of the location would not be enough; the behaviour of the perpetrator at the scene and the victim’s details are important too.

23. Learning Objectives: By the end of the lesson you should be able to: Describe (AO1) the method of geographical profiling. Evaluate with reference to research (AO2) the method of geographical profiling. Evaluate (AO2) the use of offender profiling.

24. AO2: CONCLUSION • Pinizzotto and Finkel (1990) investigated the accuracy of profiling experts and found that profilers produced richer and more detailed profiles, and correctly predicted offender characteristics. • This study shows that offender profiling can be of use for helping to solve crimes. • However, profiling alone is insufficient to convict criminals, and profilers need to work together with the police, forensic experts and other specialists in order to maximise the chance of solving crimes.

25. SUMMARY • Use your notes from this lesson to complete your essay discussing the effectiveness of offender profiling (12 marks). [4 = AO1, 8 = A02] • Top tips • ensure you have both described and evaluated the typology and geographical methods, drawing comparisons between them, included research and discussed the overall effectiveness of offender profiling. • Regardless of the question phrasing (discuss the effectiveness/ describe and evaluate offender profiling/compare methods of offender profiling etc) you will always include the above if the 12 mark question is on offender profiling.