CRIMINOLOGY THIS IS A COURSEWORK ASSESSED COURSE

Year One Introduction to criminological theories Why do people commit crimes? Is it biological? Do they learn it? Is it caused by society structures? Is it an imbalance of natural instincts? What effects do the reasons have on law making? Crime scene to Courtroom The roles of those involved Techniques of investigators Evidence collection Rights of victims, suspects and witnesses Trial process

Offender Profiling

American Approach Top Down processing – this means that they use their past knowledge of crime scenes and offenders to build up a picture of the perpetrator They have had a fairly comprehensive database since the 1970’s They have typologies such as lust, thrill, sadistic and mission killers

American Approach They work by a set of rules when a serious crime has occurred: Assimilate Data Classify the crime, Reconstruct the crime Develop the full profile This would only be done in the case of weird crimes. For instance, something strange about the person’s personality is clear from the nature of the crime

American Approach

British Approach Bottom up – involves looking at the crime scene and building up a picture that way This approach is difficult to generalise, as different police forces are free to operate any way they like More scientific than the American approach – based on clear psychological principles – aspects of the crime will run right through the offenders life – could put the level of aggression onto a scale and there should be indicators of this scale of violence in other parts of his life

British Approach Interpersonal Consistency The behaviour of the offender at the time of the crime will be comparable to what they’re like in every day life Degree of violence used in serious crimes, especially rape, may reflect how the criminal treats other women in his non-criminal life Spatial Consistency Marauders – Commit their crimes close to where they live or feel secure. – Usually disorganised criminals Commuters – Commit their crimes away from where they usually live – Usually organized

TASK Using both the American and British approach you are to create an offender profile You must include:  an approximate age,  job (including where he might work),  where he lives,  what his personal circumstances are,  his upbringing,  his relationships with women,  whether he is organised/disorganised, a marauder/commuter and  anything else you think is important about this man  At each point you must say how you know this