Tracker: Hunting Down Serial Killers [Paperback]

Maurice Godwin (Author), Fred Rosen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2004

Tracker presents former police officer Maurice Godwin’s method of psychological and geographic profiling which is revolutionizing the way police track and capture serial killers. Forget Silence of the Lambs; Hannibal Lecters and Clarice Starlings do not exist. The public believes that the FBI is protecting us from this most deadly of human predators, but the Bureau has never caught a serial killer. The profiles they turn out are based on interviews with thirty-six convicted killers, out of which only twenty-five were serial killers. Conducted in 1978, the study has since been condemned as statistically and demographically invalid. Recently courts have begun throwing out some profilers’ testimony, with judges ruling that the profiles amount to little more than voodoo. In contrast, Maurice Godwin integrates demographics, environmental psychology, landscape analysis, crime site information, and other factors to create the most accurate targeting map available. In Tracker, we learn that “[Godwin's] work is based on the collection and critical analysis of over 100,000 data points and 2,000 different crime scene actions that could be used to profile the killer.” Godwin explains, “Instead of relying on interviews with murderers, I studied specific pieces of behavioral information available from the crime scene or case file.”

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Godwin's perspective is unique. He was a beat cop in a small rural town in North Carolina. After a stop at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, TN and Indiana State University to obtain his bachelor and master degrees respectively, he traveled to England, where he studied in a one of a kind criminal psychology program at the University of Liverpool. Dr. Godwin is first American to hold a Ph.D. in Investigative Psychology. His expertise and scientific research in areas of psychology, serial killers, criminal behavior, and linking unsolved crimes distinctly sets him apart from the vast number of criminal profilers who rely on intuitive based opinions.

Dr. Godwin has written a highly regarded academic textbook, Hunting Serial Predators: A Multivariate Approach to Profiling Violent Behavior (CRC Press 1999) and edited Criminal Psychology and Forensic Technology: A Collaborative Approach to Effective Profiling (CRC Press 2000). He has published numerous academic journal articles on profiling and linking serial crimes. Dr. Godwin is also the co-author of Slave Master the true crime story of the first Internet serial killer - John Robinson, published by Pinnacle Books in February, 2004.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press (December 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560256346
• ISBN-13: 978-1560256342
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,372,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not so good actually, July 24, 2005

By 

person "person" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tracker: Hunting Down Serial Killers (Paperback)

I've spent the last 5 years learning about serial killers and killers in general, I've read at least 50 books on the subject of 'profiling' and 'psycho-geographical profiling' and I've learned one thing, NOBODY knows how to do it right, the best ones to look at are the ones that say "It can't be done accuratly, everything you do is guess work becuase nobody can know the human mind, exspecially not someone elses" and this book is one of the worst..because this guy gets 'close' to finding something he says "I did it, I proved it" and demeans FBI profilers by saying "they're just guessing" then goes and says in his OWN profiles "In my OPINION"...I donated my copy to the local library, hopefully they'll find a use for it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shoddy, September 20, 2011

By 

Dan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tracker: Hunting Down Serial Killers (Paperback)

.
The thesis of this book is that FBI profiling is worthless.

Naturally, the author has an alternative system. What few details he provides about his program become scantier as the book progresses. (The self-aggrandizement, though, never lets up.)

He might have been more believable if his book was better written.

In the Robinson case, as trial was about to get underway, he says he reviewed 300,000 pages of case files. At one minute per page, that's almost 2 1/2 years working full time. Did the court wait for him?

At one point, he suddenly breaks into 5 pages in italics. Why?

(p. 181) "last confirmed sighting" 10:30 AM. (p. 183) "last known time ... seen alive" 3-4 PM. Let's flip a coin.

He writes he "will not report general case information" in his analysis for the police, then does so for page after page (pp. 180-193). He even gives his (apparently unqualified) opinion on the wounds.

One gets the feeling the author dumped large amounts of reports he'd done into this book to avoid new writing.

Although he takes digs at John Douglas, former FBI profiler, Douglas writes a much better book (for instance, "The Cases That Haunt Us. ")

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars self-promotion rather than science, October 22, 2008

By 

Sharon Levenson "reader" (new jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tracker: Hunting Down Serial Killers (Paperback)

Early on in this book Dr. Maurice Godwin,the author(although apparently Fred Rosen ghost-wrote the actual text)makes it plain that he,and not the famed F.B.I. profiling unit,is THE expert at tracking and profiling serial killers.Such chuzpah deserves examination,and in this case examination of Godwin's claims tend to paint the doctor as egomaniacal,to say the very least.Claiming to have devised his own copyrighted tracking system called"predator"(which the doctor does not fail to hard sell throughout the book)Godwin makes a lot of windy claims that the F.B.I. is basicly incompetent but that if only all law enforcement agencies would consult with himself,and let him use"predator" then serial killing would more or less become a thing of the past..
Godwin suffers from what has been called Jeanne Dixon Syndrome..Dixon,a famous 20th century psychic,was famous for alledgedly foretelling the assassination of JFK before it actually took place..This and a few other equally spectacular predictions made her reputation..What was not incorporated into the Dixon hype was the many times that she failed in her predictions,or the many times that her claims to accurate prediction came only after the fact...
Godwin claims,throughout his book that,had he been given the necessary data and not the F.B.I.,then many of the cases that are mentioned in the book would have been solved long before they actually were,thus saving lives..We only have Godwin's word on this because these cases were solved,without Godwin's in-put,and without his copyrighted"predator" system,whatever it is,being employed..It is all well and good,after the fact,to take data,put in into a software program and develop conclusions..
It is also notable that despite Godwin's many television moments,on CNN and other news-oriented networks,few law enforcement agencies seem particularly interested in him or his self-proclaimed results.Nearly all of the cases described in"tracker" were solved without any real in-put from Godwin or his copyrighted program..And since it would seem that despite the author's claims that both he and his system are superior to any other his services are not really in demand,Godwin spends the bulk of the 232 page tome going on the offensive against the real pros,the F.B.I....
According to Godwin,the whole F.B.I. system is based on interviews done back in the 1980s..By inference then Godwin claims that the F.B.I. has just stopped trying to expand or improve thier methods since that time..And like anything else,the F.B.I. has made mistakes..Godwin spares no effort in pointing these out,while conspicuously abstaining from making reference to any of thier successes..By the same token,Godwin,in touting his own system,spares no expense in claiming it to be far superior to any other model,while conspicuously failing to make note of any of his failures,or those of his "predator" system..Surely the man's ego knows no bounds?
One more issue worth noting;According to Godwin,the whole F.B.I. profiling approach is patterned after the Thomas Harris novels which feature serial slayer Hannibal Lechter..Godwin cites the profiles that come out of the F.B.I. unit as reading more like fiction than fact,and states that such documents should not read like novels..While I have not,myself,read any F.B.I. profile report I have read Godwin's book,and it ought to read more like a novel and less like a book-length tour-de-force of shameless self-promotion.