The FBI's Top-Down Profiling Approach
The FBI developed the top-down approach to offender profiling in the 1970s as a systematic method for analyzing crime scenes and creating offender profiles. This approach aims to narrow down potential suspects by examining crime scene evidence and developing hypotheses about offender characteristics.
Definition: Top-down profiling is a systematic approach that categorizes offenders based on crime scene analysis and behavioral patterns.
Highlight: The approach distinguishes between organized and disorganized offenders, each with distinct characteristics.
Example: Organized offenders typically plan crimes in advance, show high control, and leave minimal evidence, while disorganized offenders act spontaneously and leave more evidence behind.
The profile construction follows four main stages: data assimilation, crime scene classification, crime reconstruction, and profile generation. Research by Canter et al. 2004 supports aspects of this approach, particularly regarding organized offender characteristics.
Quote: "Analysis revealed that there does seem to be a subset of features of many serial killings that matched the FBI's typology for organized offenders."