NCJ Number
208624
Date Published
2005
Length
284 pages
Annotation
This book offers an introduction to criminal offender profiling.
Abstract
A holistic approach to profiling is presented; one that incorporates social, psychological, and historical considerations into the assessment of the offender. The offender is approached as a social being who is affected by social forces, as well as by personal psychological makeup and historical factors. Part 1 is comprised of four chapters that review the origins of psychological profiling and consider the psychological and sociocriminological perspectives on violent offenders. The importance of crime scenes to offender profiling is underscored as the authors draw similarities between a patient and a crime scene. Personality traits and patterns attributed to different types of offenders are reviewed, as are personality disorders and psychotic illnesses that may result in criminal behavior. Types of offenders are described, including different types of homicide offenders, rapists, burglars, and arsonists. Part 2 contains two chapters that focus specifically on the crime scene and the crime scene investigator. Aspects of the “ordinary” crime scene, as well as the staged crime scene, are described. Valuable information that can be gleaned from a crime scene includes the location of the body, the position of the victim, the intensity of the attack, injuries sustained, and other factors that provide clues as to the identity of the offender. Investigator strategies are reviewed and recommendations are presented. Part 3 is comprised of six chapters that present the main approaches to criminal profiling. Chapters focus on sociopsychological profiling, criminal investigative analysis, investigative psychology, crime action profiling, and geographic profiling. By integrating the knowledge from psychiatry, psychology, criminology, and sociology, the field of criminal profiling has a rich basis from which to study the offender. Figures, references, addendum, index