QUESTION 1

Offender profiling allows us to identify precisely who committed a crime. True or false?

True False

F
False – Correcto

EXPLANATION

Offender profiling is proposed to help identify the most likely characteristics of the offender.
This may help in narrowing down the search of suspects to those people who have the key
characteristics that have been identified. However, it has never been proposed that offender
profiling can identify precisely who committed a crime.

QUESTION 2

In the FBI’s typology of offenders, an offender may appear ‘mixed’ in terms of being
simultaneously organised and disorganised if elements of the situation took them by
surprise when they were committing the offence. True or false?

True False

T
True - Correcto

EXPLANATION

An organised offender may appear somewhat disorganised if elements of the situation when
they went to offend took them by surprise. For example, there may have been more people
present than the offender anticipated. Or the victim may have been stronger than anticipated
and so violently fought back.

QUESTION 3
The results of the Pinizotto and Finkel (1990) study demonstrates that in terms of
multiple choice responding about a case and in picking the perpetrator from a line up,
professionally trained profilers consistently outperform non-profilers. True or false?

True False

T
True - incorrecto

EXPLANATION

Professional profilers only outperformed non-profilers on the sexual offense case. Professional
profilers did not outperform non-profilers on the homicide case.

QUESTION 4

In the FBI's Criminal Investigative Analysis approach to offender profiling, the

'signature' of the offender is a deliberate action - such as the taking of a key from the
victim's house - that serves no obvious purpose in the committing of the crime. True
or false?

True

EXPLANATION

The signature is an individualised or specific way of offending that the FBI in their
Criminal Investigative Analysis approach suggests tells you about the personality of
the offender. This may be useful in linking this crime to other crimes where the same
signature has been seen.

QUESTION 5
The Investigative Psychology approach suggests that the interactional behaviour of
offenders when offending deviates dramatically from their interactional style when
they are not offending. True or false?

False

EXPLANATION

Interpersonal coherence, one element’s of Canter’s five factor model for interpreting a
crime scene, suggests that the way in which people interact with one another in their
everyday lives is so well rehearsed and ingrained that it influences all their
interactions with others, including the way in which they interact with their victims
while offending.

QUESTION 6

According to the Investigative Psychology approach, where offenders offend is often

random. True or false?

False

EXPLANATION

The Investigative Psychology approach states that where offender's offend is not
random. They select the time and location of their offending for a reason and
investigators may be able to infer something about the offender based on their
choices about when and where to offend.

QUESTION 7

The emphasis in profiles produced through Criminal Investigative Analysis and

Investigative Psychology differ. The Criminal Investigative Analysis profiles emphasise
the offender's likely motivation and what characteristics this is associated with. The
profiles created by Investigative Psychology tend to focus on the offender's
characteristics and the offender's likely location. True or false?

True

EXPLANATION

The emphasis in profiles produced through Criminal Investigative Analysis and

Investigative Psychology differ. The Criminal Investigative Analysis profiles emphasise
the offender’s likely motivation and what characteristics this is associated with. The
profiles created by Investigative Psychology tend to focus on the offender's
characteristics and the offender's likely location.

QUESTION 8

The main practical emphasis of a geographical profile is to give estimates of the most
likely geographic location of an offender’s base (e.g., their home). True or false?

True

EXPLANATION

Much like offender profiling, geographical profiling cannot tell you precisely where the
base of an offender is (i.e., their home). However it can help narrow down a search
area by identifying the most likely area in which the offender’s base will be found.

QUESTION 9
In geographical profiling, the ‘buffer zone’ refers to an area around an offender’s
home or base in which they are unlikely to offend in case people who know them see
them. True or false?
True

EXPLANATION

It is suggested that offender's may show a preference for crime sites closer to their
home. It is at these sites that offender's may feel more knowledgeable or in control.
However in their offences they may avoid a ‘buffer zone’ around their home or base
where they may feel that they would be recognised.

QUESTION 10

Mental maps are internal representations of an area and reflect how the person
typically interacts with their environment. True or false?

True

EXPLANATION

The way you interact with a given environment will impact on the areas in that
environment that you note as significant. For example, if you catch public transport to
work or college then you will provide more detail about public transport stops or
stations than someone who drives to work or college.