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Criminal Profiling from Crime Scene Analysis

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This seminal publication in the history of FBI profiling was released by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of the information on serial killers provided by the FBI's Training Division and Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico, Virginia. Topics addressed include:

The history of criminal profiling

The profiling of murderers

The criminal-profile-generating process

Homicide type and style

Criminal Profiling from Crime Scene Analysis (Kindle Edition) forms part of an initiative to make important, insightful and engaging psychology publications widely available.

46 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 4, 2011

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About the author

John E. Douglas

33 books2,914 followers
John Edward Douglas is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, one of the first criminal profilers, and criminal psychology author. He also wrote four horror novels in the mid 1990s. -Wikipedia

During his twenty-five year career with the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, a name he later changed to The Investigative Science Unit (Douglas & Olshaker, 1995), John Douglas became the leading expert on criminal personality profiling and the pioneer of modern criminal investigative analysis. Through his research with serial criminal’s, Douglas learned how criminals think and what makes them do the things that they do, and why. Douglas can determine many personal traits and habits of an offender just by examining the crime scene; it’s evidence and victimology (Douglas & Olshaker, 1995). Interviews John Douglas has conducted hundreds of interviews with some of the world’s most notorious serial offenders, which include: - Charles Manson, and three members of the Manson clan. - Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. - John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer that killed 33 people. - David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam”. - James Earl Ray, assassin of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Ted Bundy - Unsuccessful assassins of Gerald Ford and George Wallace (Douglas & Olshaker, 1995). Captured In addition, Douglas’s profiles aided in numerous arrests of serial offenders, some of which include: - Wayne Williams, the .22 caliber killer. - Carlton Gary, the stalking strangler. - Robert Hanson, the Anchorage Alaska baker who would kidnap, hunt, then kill local prostitutes. These are just a few of the cases that John Douglas aided in throughout his twenty-five year career as a profiler with the Behavioral Science Unit, which he later renamed the Investigative Science Unit (Douglas & Olshaker, 1995). Contributions to Psychology Douglas and his colleagues outlined in an article that explained the goals of a serial offender in the September 1980 issue of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. They are as follows: - What leads a person to become a sexual offender and what are the early warning signals? - What serves to encourage or to inhibit the commission of his offense? - What types of responses or coping strategies, by an intended victim are successful with what type of sexual offender in avoiding victimization, and - What are the implications for his dangerousness, prognosis, disposition and mode of treatment (Douglas & Olshaker, 1995)?

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Profile Image for eric brown.
4 reviews1 follower
August 30, 2017
Douglas knocks another one out of the park

Douglas displayed in great detail how criminal profiling is done from compiling information and details and analyzing the crime scene along with pre and post offense behavior. John Douglas, an FBI profiler himself is a great author and I highly recommend all of his books.
Profile Image for Marina Andreou.
49 reviews13 followers
June 1, 2013
If you love Criminology like me, then this book is definitely a big help! It is written by John E. Douglas who is a former FBI Agent! I loved it, it's so interesting and it reveals the secrets of how they profile a suspect! I personaly recommend it!
Profile Image for Amy.
Author 21 books328 followers
July 1, 2012
Straight forward information. Personally exactly what I was looking for and I will refer back to it in the future.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

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