The FBI is continually updating their database of information regarding crime scenes and types of offenders, but these details are not published.
The British approach is typified by that of David Cantor, who has been a major figure in offender profiling research in this country. This approach uses 3 main areas on which to gather information and develop a profile of the offender. The first is to do with the victim and the way the victim was selected and treated by the offender. The second is the location and timing of the offences and the third is the amount of forensic awareness shown by the offender. The British approach has been called bottom up because it does not attempt to fit any crime into an existing theory but takes a more scientific approach to analysing all the details of a crime and using these to develop the profile.
There have been a number of studies investigating the effectiveness and usefulness of offender profiling. A British survey by Copson (1996) assessed the usefulness of profiling by asking Police officers who had used profilers and found that 80% reported that the advice given by profilers had been useful although only 14% said it had helped solve the case. It was also found that there are many different approaches in Britain and usefulness depended on the individual approach of the profiler. This study suggests that profiling is seen as useful even though it rarely results directly in the identification of an offender.
A lab study by Pinizotto & Finkel (1990) compared the ability to write profiles of a homicide and a sexual offence of five groups, these were expert profilers, detectives with profiling experience, detectives without profiling experience, clinical psychologists and undergraduates. They used previously solved cases and provided all details of these to the profilers. They found that Profilers were more accurate than non-profilers on the sex offence but that detectives were more accurate on the homicide case. This study suggests that experience of an area may be more important in profiling a case than training on psychological profiling.
b) In considering the evidence on offender profiling there are a number of issues raised that may lead us to question the effectiveness of offender profiling.
The first issue is methodology, that is the methods used by psychologists to collect data. The FBI approach has used self-report measures on which to base the entire approach to profiling, and these may not be a valid measure as it is quite likely that the offenders interviewed may have been manipulative and untruthful when asked for help by the police. In contrast the British approach has used more scientific methods to collect data, treating each new case separately and may therefore be more reliable.
Another evaluation issue is generalisability that is how far it is possible to generalise the results of one approach to other crime scenes. The British approach is such that there are many different profilers working in different ways, and starting afresh for each case, therefore each case is unique and although the main methods can be used there is no single unified approach to profiling. In contrast the American approach is fully coordinated by the FBI and they have set routines, which are followed for every case, meaning that the methods are more generalisable.
The third evaluation issue is ecological validity, which means how true to life the findings of a study are. The survey by Copson used real police officers with experience of profiling in real cases and was therefore high in ecological validity. In contrast the experiment by Pinizotto and Finkel was a lab study where the profilers generated profiles only for the sake of the experiment with no real consequences and therefore it lacked ecological validity, the participants may not have made much effort as they would have done in a real life case.
The fourth evaluation issue is cultural specificity, which is when studies are only really relevant to one culture. The American approach has been developed entirely from cases from America, and may therefore not really be relevant to other countries as criminal behaviour may differ in other cultures. In comparison the British approach to profiling is similarly limited and may only be relevant to crimes committed in Britain or at least in the western world.
The fifth evaluation issue is usefulness, are the research findings useful and applicable in everyday life. The experiment by Pinizotto and Finkel is very useful as it suggests that experience may be a key factor in profiling and this should suggest that the best profilers for any case are those with experience in dealing with that kind of offence. In comparison the survey by Copson is very useful information as it shows that although the conviction rates directly from profilers were quite low Police officers involved do value the contributions profilers make in assisting with cases.
c) One case study that clearly illustrates the British approach to offender profiling is that of Adrian Babb, convicted of raping elderly women. David Canter looks at 3 things when profiling a case and each of these areas is illustrated by the Babb case study.
Firstly Canter looks at the selection and type of Victim and the way the victim is treated by the offender.
Babb’s victims …
Secondly Canter looks at the significance of time and place. The attacks by Babb all took place …
Thirdly Canter looks at the forensic awareness of the offender. In the case of Babb…
