Investigative Psychology and Five-Factor Model of Cantor

It was in 1985, when Investigative Psychology was founded. That year David Canter was invited to Scotland Yard to participate in the discussion over the possibility of integrating investigation techniques with psychological concepts. Although unsure about it, Canter decided to apply some of the methods of environmental psychology to criminal investigation.

The application of his work is grounded on five aspects of the interaction between the victim and the offender. This application is known as the five-factor model. The model includes interpersonal coherence, significance of time and place, criminal characteristics, criminal career, and forensic awareness.

Interpersonal Coherence refers to whether a variation in criminal activity relates to variations in the way in which the offender deals with other people. There is an assumption that offenders deal with their victims in the same ways they deal with people in their everyday lives. There is another assumption that victims may represent significant people in the life of the offender outside of the criminal event, and Canter cites evidence which supports this.

The Significance of Time and Place gives the investigator information about mobility of offender, and helps in drawing inferences about likely residential location. Since the time and place of the crime is usually chosen by the offender, it seems to be important as it may represent the way in which the offender views their surroundings, and may also be heavily influenced by how they view their own schedule. For example, the time of a crime can give clues about their personal life.

Criminal Characteristics enable the development of subsystems for the classification of offender groups. The latter may be used to provide characteristics likely to be possessed by the perpetrator in the current crime. The classification of the offender as ‘organized’ or disorganized’ used by FBI is one such system employed for identifying criminal characteristics. However, Canter himself finds this system to be of little use considering there is so much overlap between the two classifications.

Criminal Career is closely related to forensic awareness as it deals with determining if offender engaged in criminal activity in the past.

Forensic Awareness refers to police techniques and procedures relating to the methodical gathering and analysis of evidence to establish facts that can be presented in a legal proceeding. It may include the wearing of gloves, the use of a condom, or the removal of any items contaminated with the offender’s bodily fluids.

Canter is also known as the founder of the circle theory, a model of offender behavior, which developed directly from environmental psychology. The circle theory deals with “marauder” and “commuter” hypothesis, two models of offender behavior. As for the marauder model, it rests on the assumption that an offender will go from their home base to commit their crimes. The commuter model assumes that an offender will travel a distance from their home base before committing the crime.

However, this model was based on the retrospective study using solved cases where both the location of the offender’s home and crimes were known. That is the reason why this model can hardly be applied in actual investigations as it is practically impossible to know whether you are dealing with a marauder or a commuter with an unknown offender. One more problem is the distances defined by the criminal range and home range.