Serial Crime: Theoretical and Practical Issues in Behavioral Profiling

by Wayne Petherick, Wayne Petherick (Editor)

Overview

Serial Crime, Second Edition, examines serial predatory behavior and is divided into two main parts.

Part one deals with behavioral profiling, and covers a variety of critical issues from the history of profiling and the theoretical schools of thought to its treatment in the mainstream media. This updated edition includes new sections on the problems of induction, metacognition in criminal profiling, and investigative relevance. Part two deals more specifically with a number of types of serial crime including stalking, rape, murder, and arson. Chapters on each of these crimes provide definitions and thresholds, and discussions of the offenders, the crime, and its dynamics. Considerations for behavioral profiling and investigations and the development of new paradigms in each area are interwoven throughout. Topics are conceptually and practically related since profiling has typically seen most application in serial crimes and similar investigations.

The unique presentation of the book successfully connects the concepts and creates links to criminal behavior across crimes—murder, sexual assault, and arson—something no other title does. The connection of serial behavior to profiling, the most useful tool in discovering behavior patterns, is also new to the body of literature available and serves to examine the ideal manner in which profiling can be used in conjunction with behavioral science to positively affect criminal investigations.

* Provides a theoretical and practical foundation for understanding the motivation and dynamics in a range of serial offenses * Illustrates the promise, purposes and pitfalls of behavioral profiling in the investigation of various serial crimes * Numerous case examples show the real world uses of behavioral profiling in investigations, as well as highlighting a variety of issues in understanding and investigating serial crime

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780080961750
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	06/13/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	408
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Wayne Petherick is Associate Professor of Criminology at Bond University in Australia. Wayne’s areas of interest include forensic criminology, forensic victimology, criminal motivations, criminal profiling, and applied crime analysis. He has worked on risk and threat cases, a mass homicide, stalking, rape, and a variety of civil suits involving premises liability and crime prevention. He has presented to audiences in Australia and abroad, and has published in a variety of areas including social science and legal works in the areas of criminal profiling, expert evidence, stalking, serial crimes, criminal motivations, and victimology. Wayne is co-editor of Forensic Criminology, and editor of Profiling and Serial Crime: Theoretical and Practical Issues, now in its third edition.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Criminal Profiling: A Continuing History Gareth Norris Chapter 2: Induction and Deduction in Criminal Profiling Wayne Petherick Chapter 3: Behavioral Consistency, the Homology Assumption and the Problems of Induction Wayne Petherick and Claire Ferguson Chapter 4: Criminal Profiling Methods Wayne Petherick Chapter 5: The Fallacy of Accuracy in Criminal Profiling Wayne Petherick Chapter 6: Investigative Relevance Claire Ferguson Chapter 7: Metacognition in Criminal Profiling Barry Woodhouse and Wayne Petherick Chapter 8: Profiling as Expert Evidence Wayne Petherick, David Field, Andrew Lowe and Elizabeth Fry Chapter 9: Where to from Here? Wayne Petherick Chapter 10: Criminal Profilers and the Media: Profiling the Beltway Snipers Brent Turvey and Michael McGrath Chapter 11: Serial Stalking: Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places? Wayne Petherick Chapter 12: Serial Rape: An Investigative Approach Terry Goldsworthy Chapter 13: Understanding Serial Sexual Murder: A Biopsychosocial Approach Robert J. Homant and Daniel B. Kennedy Chapter 14: Serial Arson Ross Brogan

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Nicholas Greco IV, MS, BCETS, CATSM (C3 Education and Research, Inc.)
Description: This is a fascinating and thorough examination into the world of serial crime. The author takes us on a journey many have never seen and definitely beyond the realm of television crime dramas.
Purpose: The purpose of this book is to demystify profiling, promote the realistic rather than the media portrayal of profiling, and to study the topic of serial crime in a more systematic way. This book examines the theoretical and practical foundation on which behavioral profiling is based. The book also successfully aims to provide the reader with an objective source considering how many "arm-chair experts" there have been introduced into the field. The book not only exceeds the author's objectives but mine as well.
Audience: Clearly, this book is for the trained forensic clinician, criminologist, law enforcement officials, etc. However, this book would serve as a primer for graduate study especially since it is objective and sets a solid base for understanding the nature of criminals and their activity. The author is highly credible in his field.
Features: This book provides the reader with not just a foundation of knowledge but the recognition and reminder that there is a high level of responsibility to being a profiler or researcher in forensics. There are excellent examples throughout the book on the various topics of serial stalking, serial rape, serial murder, and the fascinating area of serial arson. The reader gets into the mind of the criminal and the profiler as the criminal profiling methods are described, but what makes this book unique is the way the author highlights the pitfalls and errors which can happen along the way.
Assessment: The need for an empirical, unbiased examination of the field of forensic psychology is long overdue. The author and contributing authors deserve an overwhelming applause for their real world focus and true usage of behavior profiling. Clearly, a stand alone book and a much-needed contribution to the field.

Doody's Review Service

The unique presentation of the book successfully connects the concepts and creates links to criminal behaviour across crimes . . . something no other title available does.” – The Journal of Law Enforcement

"[Serial Crime] offers an excellent introductory text and gives the reader a thorough overview and a sense of where we currently are in the evolution of the field. [T]his volume provides a seminal building block for the field [of crime scene investigation and criminal profiling]." - Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology

From the Publisher