Investigative Psychology: Offender Profiling and the Analysis of Criminal Action

This book was part of the reading list for my Masters degree in Investigative Psychology. Through my undergraduate degree I had read many textbooks about psychology, forensics and crime, but none of them offered the insights this book did.IP is a relatively new discipline which bridges the gap between psychology and the police. It offers new scientific methods, grounded in theory, that can contribute to police investigations.Some textbooks can be tedious to read, but this one was a pleasure as I always wanted to know more about this new area. Learning about Geographical profiling and other scientific approaches towards catching criminals was fascinating.I think perhaps other reviewers may not fully grasp how interesting this book is as they haven’t taken the course and learned about these new scientific methods which could be very beneficial to our criminal justice system.This was an invaluable resource for my degree, but even if you aren’t taking the course and want a more ‘well rounded’ understanding of criminology/forensics/law enforcement/psychology of offenders, I would definitely recommend this. I will be returning to it in the future to brush up on my offender profiling skills.

More than I expected. I highly recommend it. The book was one of my main sources for exam "Basics of criminal profiling". I passed the exam with the maximum number of points.

I write this review as a practicing Forensic Psychologist and private investigator, with many years of experience.The book covers a wide range of areas in which Forensic Psychologists are or maybe involved. This includes everything from a general introduction into the role of an Investigative (forensic) Psychologist (part 1), to various statistical and qualitative methods, using empirical data to gain a deeper understanding of aspects of criminality (part 2), through to the application of the methods to different forms of crime such as: burglary; murder; terrorism; sexual offences; organised crime (Part 3).From an academic perspective, which is what this book is, it is saturated with references to the author's own previous works. This is distracting to say the least and unusual in academic writing as most good works not only build on previous work from other scholars, but will present alternative arguments or methods, which this book does not, although there are some very suitable alternative methods used by other practitioners.In some cases, this book is actually inaccurate. For example, in the 'investigative' interviewing chapter. I quote "Under British Law it is very important that there is no hint that a person is assumed to be guilty until the court has issued a verdict. Therefore when a suspect is arrested it is crucial that the police do not indicate that they believe that person to be guilty." (p. 394). Of course, if you consider that an individual under arrest is told under caution 'that they have been arrested on suspicion of xxx and that anything they say may be used as evidence in court', it is naive at best that the authors take this line, as it is clearly unhelpful to be so inaccurate. Fortunately the book does not stand or fall by this error, though it is noteworthy.The major omission from the book is the lack of an acknowledgment that there are many offenders out there (typically non-apprehended) that do not fall into the the type of work presented in this book, which has derived from the empirical data collected on apprehended offenders. For example, whilst I was writing up my own research into non-apprehended burglars for peer reviewed publication (now in press), I was unable to find anything in the book that could help to support or explain the results in my research.

I bought this book on the recommendation of my professor in a psychological profiling class. He taught the course on psychological profiling and I wanted to learn more about it. I understand now why he recommended this book. I loved the book. It's written with amazing precision. It breaks down the very psychological process of developing a profile. I loved the explanation regarding inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. How premises are formed based on correlation and how deductive conclusions are only as good as the premise they are based on. The book is profoundly eloquent. It provides the very language needed to describe psychological profiling as a technique. If you're looking for a book on psychological profiling, this is THE book to get, and this is THE expert to learn it from. Highly recommended.

Very good book