The Evil That Men Do: FBI Profiler Roy Hazelwood's Journey into the Minds of Sexual Predators (Hardcover)

by Stephen G. Michaud (Author), Roy Hazelwood (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The Evil That Men Do profiles the profilers--the investigators who study crimes to try to figure out how, why, and by whom crimes were committed. The focus is on veteran profiler Roy Hazelwood, who played an important role in the growing legitimacy of the art and science of psychological profiling, often seen by police forces as a questionable practice. Through his chillingly accurate profiles and his ability to predict criminal behavior, as well as his keen and creative logical reasoning, Hazelwood has proven himself not only to the law enforcement professionals who use his services but to the public at large.

Michaud doesn't approach his subject gingerly. While the profilers are treated like regular guys with a really weird job, the crime descriptions can be nauseatingly graphic. Although some of the accounts are funny, this is primarily a disturbing glimpse at some of the most deranged and violent people modern society has produced. --Lisa Higgins

From Publishers Weekly
Michaud documents the unique career of criminologist Hazelwood, a retired member of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit (little known to the public until Thomas Harris wrote The Silence of the Lambs). Hazelwood was one of the co-founders of VICAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program), the FBI's program to profile serial killers, with Robert Ressler and John Douglas. In the wake of books by Douglas (the bestselling Mind Hunter) and Ressler (Whoever Fights Monsters), Michaud recounts Hazelwood's career and explains his specialty?exploring the psychology and motives of sexual predators, from rapists to serial killers. Sexual crime investigation was a "scorned and degraded facet of police work" until Hazelwood transformed it into a professional discipline at the FBI. "There'd been hundreds of rape studies done," according to Hazelwood, "but no one had ever looked at serial rapists." To do so, he combed prison records of 12 states, locating 41 men who, cumulatively, had committed 837 known rapes and attempted 400 more. The book relates Hazelwood's involvement in several headline cases of both alleged and confirmed sexual crimes (Tawana Brawley in 1987, the Atlanta Child Murders that first came to light in 1979, the explosion that killed 47 aboard the USS Iowa in 1989) and the numerous accounts of unfamiliar criminals are equally, if grimly, absorbing. Michaud is most interesting when he ably summarizes Hazelwood's groundbreaking work and least interesting when he slips into simple hagiography of the dedicated lawman. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 262 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1 Us ed edition (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312198779
• ISBN-13: 978-0312198770
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #824,431 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This one's an eye-opener, August 24, 1999

By A Customer

I was so looking forward to reading this book. I just love reading John Douglas' profiling books and I was ready to delve into a new facet, the sexual predator. Unfortunately, Mr. Michaud just about ruined the book for me. The main thing that grated on my nerves was the use of $50 words when a ten cent word would do. The bigger, longer, fancier word did nothing to add to the content and did more to confuse me, the average reader. I spent more time reaching for my dictionary than I did reading the book! I consider myself well read and I have a good vocabularly but I do believe this guy was out to make the reader feel stupid. For example, he uses the word "scion" instead of "son" when referring to a child. Who uses these words in everyday conversation? Hazelwood's profiles and discoveries will really open your eyes and make you think. He's obviously a very smart man who devoted most of his life to ridding society of these animals. I applaud Roy Hazelwood for this book and recommend to Mr. Michaud that he leave his thesaurus alone the next time around.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A lukewarm book that doesn't fit its title, June 4, 1999

By	Miranda Dietrich "voracious reader and jewelr... (Milwaukee) - See all my reviews

I'm a huge fan of true crime and forensic science. However, I found this book seriously disappointing.....particularly since I bought it in hardbound!!! I can't count the number of times in this book that I sighed in disappointment,since suddenly, the book would shift to a chapter that had absolutely no connection with the subtitle of this book, "FBI Profiler Roy Hazelwood's Journey into the Minds of Sexual Predators." In fact, there wasn't much about sexual predators until the final chapters. And........Stephen Michaud, who wrote this book, tends to cover topics in such brevity that it leaves the reader wondering, "And? And?" I think the problem here is Stephen Michaud. He stinks as a writer. I'm sure Roy Hazelwood's career has been fascinating, and it's unfortunate that he chose Michaud as his author of choice. There were so many grammatical errors in the first third of this book that I simply couldn't imagine why Michaud was thanking his editor. For me, particularly in a hardbound, such carelessness just drives me nuts. All-in-all, I found this book to be a major disappointment and the single most dull book I've read in true crime/forensic science.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hazelwood should've picked a different writer, February 26, 2000

By A Customer

While I don't discount Roy Hazelwood's expertise, I felt the book was not well-written. Stories lacked details of the criminal's acts and psychological explanations were brief. There were many opportunities to expand on a particular subject, but instead, I was left hanging and wanting to know more. Also, it was occasionally hard to get past Michaud's style of writing. Despite Hazelwood's fascinating career as a behavioral profiler, this book didn't do him justice. Perhaps a good, second book will remedy this...?