Killing for Sport: Inside the Minds of Serial Killers [Hardcover]

Pat Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

Killing for Sport is the most valuable insight into the minds of serial killers you'll ever read. While other profilers tend to conceal the clear facts behind complex technical language and psychobabble, Pat Brown actually tells it like it is. Killing for Sport will intrigue you with its honest portrayal of the predator-next-door, how he hunts for him victims, why he likes to torture them, where he tends to stash their bodies, and more. Movies such as Silence of the Lambs, Seven, American Psycho and many others have created myths about serial killers that need to be dispelled: If you think that most serial killers are eccentric, white, male intellectuals, then you had better read Killing for Sport to learn the truth. The more our society is informed about these predators and what really goes on in their minds, the more equipped we will be to protect ourselves from them. With the same dark wit that gets people who work with the criminally insane through their workday, Brown speaks frankly about the monsters among us who kill for sport.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Brown, CEO of Sexual Homicide Exchange (S.H.E.), which helps survivors, believes that people are misinformed about serial killers, primarily because of the attention given to selected criminals in the press or film. Having once rented a room to a murder suspect, Brown became an investigative profiler. Here, she attempts to debunk the many misconceptions about serial killers, including those regarding their educational background and family relationships. Brown presents her information in a straightforward, slightly cynical manner, which detracts from the book. The subheads within chapters are often too obvious-"Are There Serial Killers in Other Countries?" and "Can Watching Pornography Lead to Serial Killing?" Furthermore, Brown's casual style is sometimes insulting. She describes Munchausen syndrome by proxy as "a nasty little psychological development." When the author talks about whether killers seek victims who look like family members, she says, "When white serial killers kill black women and black serial killers kill white women, this theory is blown out of the water." The book does offer a nonsensational overview of serial killers and profiling that some readers may find interesting. However, what's missing are comments from other experts-police, doctors, etc. Brown includes quotes from killers along with her own commentary on a variety of cases, which is occasionally tantalizing, but this is not a complete reference on serial killers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

In 1990, wife and mother Pat Brown rented a room to someone who turned out to be a suspect in the murder of a female jogger. When her local police proved ineffective at investigating the crime, her frustration led her to become a criminal profiler. In 1996 she founded The Sexual Homicide Exchange. She can be seen on Court TV's crime series I Detective and as a guest on many television news and talk shows. She now dedicates her time to families of homicide victims assisting law enforcement with unsolved cases and working to improve the present system of serial homicide investigation. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: New Millennium Press (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893224937
• ISBN-13: 978-1893224933
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,179,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown


Pat Brown is a nationally known criminal profiler and television commentator. She is the CEO of The Sexual Homicide Exchange (www.SHEprofilers.com) and president of The Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency (www.patbrownprofiling.com). Through the Sexual Homicide Exchange, she provides pro bono cold case profiling and training for law enforcement and she works privately for families, attorneys, and the media throught her own agency. Pat Brown is the author of Killing for Sport: Inside the Minds of Serial Killers (Phoenix Books) and her new book, The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths (Hyperian Voice) will be out in May 2010. Having made over one thousand television and radio appearances in the United States and worldwide, Pat Brown is well known for her crime commentary and for her profiling and forensic analysis. She can be seen regularly on MSNBC, CNN, FOX, NBC, and CBS, and is a frequent guest of Nancy Grace, Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, Larry King, The Today Show, and The CBS Early Show. Pat Brown was the host and profiler for the 2004 Discovery Channel documentary, The Suspicious Death of Cleopatra and in February 2010 she can be seen in the new Discovery Channel Mystery Files series revealing a new Jack the Ripper suspect and discussing why she believes Cleopatra was murdered.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Different opinions out there, August 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Killing for Sport: Inside the Minds of Serial Killers (Hardcover)

I have never written a review before and am sorry that I felt I had to write this one. After looking forward to this book I was greatly disappointed. I have read other profile books and always came away feeling like I learned something. The author seemed to have little to no use for law inforcement or profilers and made many of the profilers sound egocentric. It almost seemed like there was some hard feelings between them. I think I could learn more watching forensic files for an hour then reading this book. She tended to explain the most mundane words in the book so you felt almost as if she was talking to a child with the whole "SHE" examples. I felt it was poorly written. It did not give any information that I felt most people don't already know. It didn't seem to be written well. There really is much in the book to recommend. I would try other profile books out there first.

17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible introduction to the subject, January 21, 2008

By 

C. Williams (Fayetteville, Arkansas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Killing for Sport: Inside the Minds of Serial Killers (Hardcover)

Having read this book, I will never listen to a thing Pat Brown has to say.

I purchased this book used for $8 from a local book dealer, and I can't remember the last time I felt more ripped off. Judging by the book jacket and introduction, it seemed like it may have been at least a decent introductory text on the subject. Instead, what I found was a book full of unsupported opinions with no research materials listed, no footnotes, and no indication of any actual, first-hand knowledge of the subject. Instead, the author makes constant, thinly-veiled attacks against the superstars of the profiling world--authors like ex-FBI profilers John Douglas and Roy Hazelwood--who DO have the decades of experience and research necessary to provide informed opinions about how serial killers and other violent criminals function. Pat Brown is a great example of the "Hollywood expert," those people that have no real credentials, but look good on camera (and make ample use of that fact.) For my money, I'll take the ACTUAL experts any day. I kept thinking, "What's the matter, Pat? Did the FBI turn you down for a job? Get over it already!"

Another thing that irked me about this book was the sheer amount of needless filler and bad formatting. At 194 pages (not including the ridiculously unnecessary "glossary"), it seems like there should be more material there than is actually present. Sometimes-large sections of each page are taken up with serial killer quotes, with no credit given to her sources (some of which are from interviews with the very same experts that she constantly slams). In fact, one of the "killer quotes" wasn't even from a murderer, but from a convicted necrophiliac. The Q&A formatting, while seemingly a good idea, just serves to take up more space, with each question in large, bold print. Essentially, it looks as though the book was designed to stretch a relatively small amount of information into a book-length manuscript. Since the primary purpose of the book is to pimp her own profiling agency, maybe she should have stuck with an advertising pamphlet.

Brown states in the introduction that she wants her readers to be offended, that the book is written from the perspective of the killers themselves. She certainly succeeded in offending me, but for all the wrong reasons. If you want to read a decent (if still flawed) book about serial killers from the perspective of a killer, try "The Gates of Janus" by Ian Brady. There's a guy who knows, from ample and grisly experience, exactly what he's talking about...

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars tough talk about brutal crimes, July 2, 2004

By 

David Group (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killing for Sport: Inside the Minds of Serial Killers (Hardcover)

This is a streetwise no BS guide to the minds of serial criminals that shatters a lot of stereotypes. Though she finds common threads in the thinking of psychopathic minds, this is more of an anti-profiling book, as it points out some of the flaws in attempting to pigeonhole criminals into certain types.

On the negative side, the book suffers from awkward and sloppy writing, flippant and jokey descriptions ("bop-and-drop", "Smoke a Cigarette"), and her tendency to let her emotions get the best of her (referring to serial killers as "cowardly" and "wimps".) The book also suffers from a lack of scientific documentation and/or real-life examples-- in fact, she uses her own fictional examples, which only come off as absurd caricatures of real life.

Brown's main purpose, it appears, is to shock the reader out of his/her complacency, and this book is best read by women who are too cavalier or ignorant about their vulnerability to the sick and dangerous predators out there. Should be read by women everywhere, along with Gavin DeBecker's THE GIFT OF FEAR.