Book Description

Do your students understand the job of a "criminal profiler"? Yes, they see them nightly on tv shows and in the news, but do they have a real understanding of how law enforcement can use empirical data to correctly assess behavior and help solve crimes, particularly serial crimes? Criminal and Behavioral Profiling, by well-established authors Curt and Anne Bartol, presents a realistic and empirically-based look at the theory, research, and practice of modern criminal profiling. Designed for use in a variety of criminal justice and psychology courses, the book delves into the process of identifying behavioral tendencies, geographical locations, demographic and biographical descriptors of an offender (or offenders), and sometimes personality traits based on characteristics of the crime. Timely literature and case studies from the rapidly growing international research in criminal profiling help students understand the best practices, major pitfalls, and psychological concepts that are key to this process.