Offender Profiling: The Bottom-Up Approach

The bottom-up approach to offender profiling was developed in the United Kingdom by David Canter in the late 1980s and 1990s. Unlike the top-down approach, which starts with pre-existing typologies and matches evidence to them, the bottom-up approach is data-driven — it starts with the details of the crime scene and uses statistical analysis and psychological theory to build a profile from the evidence upwards. Canter argued that profiling should be grounded in scientific methodology rather than clinical intuition.

Key Definition: The bottom-up approach to offender profiling uses statistical techniques and psychological theory to analyse crime scene data and generate predictions about offender characteristics, without relying on pre-existing typologies.

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Investigative Psychology

Canter (1990, 1994) developed the field of investigative psychology, which applies established psychological theory and statistical methods to criminal investigation. The key principle is that offending behaviour is not random — it reflects the offender's psychological characteristics, social interactions, and everyday life in predictable ways.

Key Concepts in Investigative Psychology

Interpersonal Coherence