FORENSIC
PSYCHOLO
GY
Lorin Yesilyurt
,DEFINITIONS + ISSUES
• A crime is any act which breaks the law and therefore deserves punishment
• However, there are cultural issues, such as what may be considered as ‘criminal’
in the first place, in some cultures what may be a crime or deviant may not be
deviant or criminal in the other
• The key example for this is FGM which is normalized in some Asian countries, but
it is a crime within Europe
• Furthermore, laws can also change with time, which means the definition of crime
must consistently be updated or the law in general must be changed as outdated
laws cannot stay within the system, the key example for this is the Same Sex
Marriage act, which legalized homosexuality, and homosexual marriage
• The age of Criminal Responsibility within Germany is age 14, In the UK it is 10
and in Scotland it is 12
, MEASURING CRIME + OFFENDER PROFILING
• Official statistics, numbers and types of crimes report to the police which are then recorded and published annually by the home office, these are used to formulate
new policies and direct resources to areas which are more predominant in crime
• The Crime survey is also used, this is whereby 50k households are randomly selected and then asked to report crimes in which they have been victims of for the past
year
• Offender profiling is whereby a crime scene is analyzed and observed and evidence collected is used to infer the likely characteristics of the offender, profiling is used
to predict characteristics of the offender such as their age, gender, occupation, personality and their behavioral patterns (for example how calculated the offender is)
• The top-down approach was developed by the FBI and is based on interviews with convicted serial killers; this works by matching crimes to pre-existing categories.
• Organized offenders, these are offenders whose crimes are very planned and controlled, their victim is targeted deliberately, they often remove evidence and leave
nothing left behind and these are the criminals who are defined to be intelligent, socially competent and skilled at what they have done
• Disorganized offenders are those whose crimes are spontaneous and chaotic, these offenders spend little time planning their crimes, they leave evidence behind and
they are clumsy and these offenders are said to be of lower intelligence, they are socially awkward and they often live closer to the crime scene
• The strengths of profiling is the practical use which helps narrow down suspects, these are useful in more serious crimes
• The limitations are that it lacks scientific basis and is used on a small sample of offenders, this therefore lacks reliability and validity. Furthermore, profiling is
oversimplified, with the sheer number of criminals there are, they cannot just be fit into one category
• The bottom-up approach was developed in the UK, it uses data, statistics and patterns and it does not use fixed categories like the top down approach, it was
developed by David Canter
• The key concepts of this include Interpersonal coherence (offenders often behave similarly in crimes as in everyday life) Forensic Awareness (whereby some offenders
try to avoid detection, which suggests their prior experience) and Consistency, (whereby offenders show similarity and patterns across the crimes they have
committed)
• Geographical profiling is whereby investigators analyze locations of crimes to see trends and patterns
• The Circle Theory is whereby the offenders home is likely within a circle around the location of where the crime took place
• The types of offenders are the Marauder, this is the offender that operates near their home, and the Commuter, who travels far to commit their crimes
• The strength of this approach is that it is based on large data sets and statistical analysis, therefore its more object, it also has research support
• The limitation is that it is time consuming and it requires a lot of data analysis.
PSYCHOLO
GY
Lorin Yesilyurt
,DEFINITIONS + ISSUES
• A crime is any act which breaks the law and therefore deserves punishment
• However, there are cultural issues, such as what may be considered as ‘criminal’
in the first place, in some cultures what may be a crime or deviant may not be
deviant or criminal in the other
• The key example for this is FGM which is normalized in some Asian countries, but
it is a crime within Europe
• Furthermore, laws can also change with time, which means the definition of crime
must consistently be updated or the law in general must be changed as outdated
laws cannot stay within the system, the key example for this is the Same Sex
Marriage act, which legalized homosexuality, and homosexual marriage
• The age of Criminal Responsibility within Germany is age 14, In the UK it is 10
and in Scotland it is 12
, MEASURING CRIME + OFFENDER PROFILING
• Official statistics, numbers and types of crimes report to the police which are then recorded and published annually by the home office, these are used to formulate
new policies and direct resources to areas which are more predominant in crime
• The Crime survey is also used, this is whereby 50k households are randomly selected and then asked to report crimes in which they have been victims of for the past
year
• Offender profiling is whereby a crime scene is analyzed and observed and evidence collected is used to infer the likely characteristics of the offender, profiling is used
to predict characteristics of the offender such as their age, gender, occupation, personality and their behavioral patterns (for example how calculated the offender is)
• The top-down approach was developed by the FBI and is based on interviews with convicted serial killers; this works by matching crimes to pre-existing categories.
• Organized offenders, these are offenders whose crimes are very planned and controlled, their victim is targeted deliberately, they often remove evidence and leave
nothing left behind and these are the criminals who are defined to be intelligent, socially competent and skilled at what they have done
• Disorganized offenders are those whose crimes are spontaneous and chaotic, these offenders spend little time planning their crimes, they leave evidence behind and
they are clumsy and these offenders are said to be of lower intelligence, they are socially awkward and they often live closer to the crime scene
• The strengths of profiling is the practical use which helps narrow down suspects, these are useful in more serious crimes
• The limitations are that it lacks scientific basis and is used on a small sample of offenders, this therefore lacks reliability and validity. Furthermore, profiling is
oversimplified, with the sheer number of criminals there are, they cannot just be fit into one category
• The bottom-up approach was developed in the UK, it uses data, statistics and patterns and it does not use fixed categories like the top down approach, it was
developed by David Canter
• The key concepts of this include Interpersonal coherence (offenders often behave similarly in crimes as in everyday life) Forensic Awareness (whereby some offenders
try to avoid detection, which suggests their prior experience) and Consistency, (whereby offenders show similarity and patterns across the crimes they have
committed)
• Geographical profiling is whereby investigators analyze locations of crimes to see trends and patterns
• The Circle Theory is whereby the offenders home is likely within a circle around the location of where the crime took place
• The types of offenders are the Marauder, this is the offender that operates near their home, and the Commuter, who travels far to commit their crimes
• The strength of this approach is that it is based on large data sets and statistical analysis, therefore its more object, it also has research support
• The limitation is that it is time consuming and it requires a lot of data analysis.
