Customer Reviews

Profilers: Leading Investigators Take You Inside the Criminal Mind

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Criminal psychology and profiling are my areas of biggest interest in the realm of true crime. As I have a library of over 50 books on this and related topics I certainly feel qualified to write reviews on these books.
This book is devided into two parts. The first is a collection eleven odd articles from various bulletins and law enforcement magazines. Put simply, as the book tiltles them, this is a collection of the well known Original Behavioural Science Articles on Criminal Profiling. They are written by the 'who's who' from the era often referred to as 'The Golden Age of Profilers'. For this reason alone the book is well worth 'the price of admission.'
Part two covers comtemporary articles on Criminal Profiling. The topices are wide and varied covering such topics as Forensic Linguistics, Geographic Profiling to Assaultive Eye Injury and Enucleation.
I wondered how interested I would be in Forensic Linguistics but found the chapter facinating.
I feel most readers with an interest in the topic will find part one just great. In part two, since it covers such a wide range of areas I guess it's possible the odd chapter may not appearl to all.
The other plus here is the fact the book is broken into distinct articles by the editors so you can 'peice read' or do a 'cover to cover'.
I see the book as appealing to law inforcemnet personel, people like myself who don't work in law inforcement but have to deal with perpitrators and their victims and finally all those who enjoy the topic.
If I were forced to give up my entire library and keep just one book this would nearly have to be the one.
A great book, well done to Campbell and DeNevi, the editors.

I'm an obsessed soon-to-be forensic nurse. (I already have the nurse part.)I've read lots of material on profilers - one of my favorite subjects. Most of the books are, to one degree or another, an homage to the profiler's ego and everyone contradicts everyone else. (Just read the other reviews.)I've found this to be true even for textbooks. There's always lots about who did what first and did it better. Very unprofessional in my humble opinion. I think the reviews I read here gave me the inspiration to try "Profilers". This is truly a wonderful and fun, yes fun, book to read. If you're into this sort of thing you'll know what I mean. It's definitely a beginners guide to profiling but I think even the mid-level enthusiast or professional would enjoy it. The book is a collection of articles, research papers and the like by many names you will instantly recognize. There are 2 sections to the book, the first made up of older contributions to the field. At first I was a little disappointed with this because I wanted the newest, most up to date material there was. I read those articles anyway and was really glad I did. I think knowing how it all started, how the first profilers worked and who the players were did a lot to add to my foundation. The 2nd section contains the newer material and does not disappoint. Since the articles are by many different people on many different topics you keep getting fresh perspectives. You don't have to read the book in order. I skipped to whatever chapter looked appealing at the moment and didn't feel it hurt the experience. Best of all, no ego trips to slog through.

This is a terrific read, especially for the beginner to the field. You will learn about profiles of all types, homicide, rape, mutilation, sexual homicide, crime scenes, organized vs. disorganized murderers, interviewing, linguistics, enucleation, cold cases, geographic profiling, child abductors, psychopaths, sadists, basic terminology and much, much more. All this is written in an easy, relaxed style that I think anyone who has an interest in forensics will enjoy.

The only thing that bugged me was the fact that they used a good bit of material from the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletins which are available online for free. Also, there was definitely a good bit of repetition of material. I still enjoyed the book so much I can't take away any points for those small issues.

The concept of criminal profiling, once alien to the ordinary American, is today a part of our daily lives thanks to television shows and news programs, and Profilers: Leading Investigators Take You Inside The Criminal Mind compiles articles from fifteen internationally recognized homicide investigators, many of whom have contributed some of the basics to the art of profiling criminals. From dealing with hostage situations and murder to creating psychological profiles and geographic profiles, Profilers provides plenty of inside detail and will appeal not only to fans of true crime and murder mysteries, but those involved in law enforcement at many levels.

I found this book boring and vague. I've gotten better information from hour long TV shows. The definitions and examples seemed pretty obvious to me. There was nothing in depth or detailed about anything. Many of the examples were the same from chapter to chapter. And most were third hand, sparse descriptions that seemed to be out of other reference books.

This book did not live up to my expectations. The description lead me to believe that this would be a book by profilers to give and understanding of profiling and the criminal, but I found it vague and cursory at best. This is a collection of essays, but there is little to no first hand examples, in depth case reviews or analysis. It reads like those boring professors I had in college who got up and either talked about themselves and how much they know or just recite selections from text books. When the title said "Inside the Criminal Mind" I was expecting just that, a discussion or study of the history, reasoning, motivation, mental health, ect of the criminals. I found very little of that.

There would be lists like: this percent of murderers interviewed suffered this kind of abuse, and this percent suffered this other kind, and this percent sufferd both, which didn't tell me any more than I already knew, and certainly didn't take me into the mind of anyone escept the writers.

And, I felt that the chapter on interviewing was contradictory and very condescending and arrogaunt, especially to police officers. The writer of that essay first says that many of these criminals will do and say anything to make these atrocities not their fault. He uses Dahmer as an example of this. Next, he makes alligations that the police were at fault for Dahmer's actions because of ignorance or laziness or deliberate neglegance or mistakes . . . Then, he asks leading questions of Dahmer who of course agrees that the police could have and should have stopped him. The writer just got done illustrating how Dahmer always put blame on others or citims for his actions, and then he uses what dahmer says as evidence of the police's incompitence. I found it personally infuriating at the ellitist and acusitory tone. In addition, there was this whole page of defensive comments directed towards the court and writer's collegues, when the writer wasn't allowed to testify at Dahmer's trial. They in fact accused the writer of seeking to be involved in the case. The jury are even refered to as "laymen" and described as having no ability to judge Dahmer's competancy. Apparently, no one was able except the writer, who's judgement was different than the jury, the expert psychologists or the judge. That chapter alone, and the tone of the writer, angered me and ruined the whole book for me, putting it over the top from mediocure to questionable. I find it impossible to assign any credibility to writing that is that self rightesous and condescending of law enforcement.

I asked for this book for christmas, and I'm actually embarassed that my mom spent money on it because it wasn't cheap. She paid full price which is almost $30. I don't consider myself greatly knowledgeable on this subject, but I learned absolutely nothing new or insightful from this book.

I found The Only Living Witness: The True Story of Serial Sex Killer Ted Bundy and, Green River, Running Red, about the Green River Killer far, far more interesting and educational. They were much more insightful into the criminal mind, and I got to make my own conclusions through the unbiased presentation and honest reporting of both the killers and the law enforcement officers.

I admit I am not qualified to review in the top concerning profilers but this book does do a very good job of bringing many traits to the surface that most people are not aware of by simple conversation with sociopaths.

The conversation with Jeff Dalhmer is very revealing and in itself reveals but the author tears up the conversation to reveal the deepest of traits that surprisingly are in most men. This is most of what the book is, converse and disect and reveal.

I sincerely want to recommend a book which does an incredible job at revealing and Helping people, this one does.

If you're writing about murder, serial murder, spree murder, profiling, profiling from the crime scene, or the uses of forensic linguistics, you must read this book. There are a hundred novels that can be written about the "phases of the crime" alone.

I was so enthralled in this book I could not stop reading it. There is so much information on so many different cases and scenarios. I am working toward being a forensic psychologist this book was FANTASTICK

very detailed but interesting if this what you are interested in. this is what real life is about.

This book does not give an accurate description of a profilers job. It makes profiler's seem like psychics. Would make a better tv show but not helpful to anyone serious about learning Criminal profiling.