Describe one case of applied offender profiling.

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Yvonne Ashworth

a). Describe one case of applied offender profiling. (10 marks)

David Canter took up the case of the ‘Railway Rapist’ in 1986, to help search for a serial rapist, who had also committed 2 murders. Originally, John Duffy was 1505th in a list of about 2000 suspects, but after the profile was developed he was investigated and subsequently convicted. David Canter was involved as part of the ‘bottom up’ approach used by the British police. It is called this because they employ private criminal psychologists to create profiles for them, as opposed to the FBI system, the ‘top down’ approach where everything is internal. From the evidence left at the scene and the way the attacks were carried out he created an offender profile, which subsequently aided the police to arrest John Duffy, who was later convicted of 2 murders, 5 rapes (although he may have committed more – 33 door keys from victims were found in his house, kept as souvenirs) and given 7 life sentences.

Canter constructed the profile by using 5 factors, and these are:

  • Interpersonal coherence – this is whether behaviour in a criminal situation relates to behaviour in a non-criminal situation, Canter suggested that the offender’s behaviour would be similar whether in a criminal or a non-criminal situation. He further suggested that victims of the offender may be chosen because they represent people in the offender’s life, for example in the case of Ted Bundy, whose victims were thought to represent his ex girlfriend, and in the case of John Duffy he was thought to be married as sexual contact was initiated by him.
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  • Time and Place – can suggest how far the offender is able to travel, and so possible residential areas can be suggested. This can also give clues about the offender’s personal life, because if they work, for example, the crime is less likely to be committed during working hours. In the John Duffy case, the offender was thought to be a railway employee because the offences were committed in places known to railway employees but unknown to the public, and John Duffy had trained to be a carpenter with British Rail. He also lived in the area where the ...

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