CRIMINOLOGYTHIS 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

Characteristics of murder Organised Crime is planned Shows self-control at the crime scene Leaves few clues Victim is a targeted stranger Attempts to control the victim Disorganised Little planning/preparation Little attempt to hide evidence at the crime scene Minimum use of constraint Random, disorganised behaviour

Likely characteristics of offender Above average IQ Socially and sexually competent Married/co-habiting Experiencing anger/depression at the time of the murder Follows media coverage of the murder In a skilled occupation Lives alone, near to crime scene Sexually and socially inadequate In an unskilled occupation Physically/sexually abused in childhood Frightened and confused at the time of the attack

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 ApproachInterpersonal 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