As any police officer who has ever walked a beat or worked a crime scene knows, the street has its hot spots, patterns, and rhythms: drug dealers work their markets, prostitutes stroll their favorite corners, and burglars hit their favorite neighborhoods. But putting all the geographic information together in cases of serial violent crime (murder, rape, arson, bombing, and robbery) is highly challenging. Just ask the homicide detectives of the Los Angeles Police Department who hunted the Hillside Stranglers, or law enforcement officers in Louisiana who tracked the brutal South Side rapist. Geographic Profiling introduces and explains this cutting-edge investigative methodology in-depth. Used to analyze the locations of a connected series of crimes to determine the most likely area of offender residence, geographic profiling allows investigators and law enforcement officers to more effectively manage information and focus their investigations. This extensive and exhaustive work explains geographic profiling theories and principles, and includes an extensive review of the literature and research in the areas of criminal profiling, forensic behavioral science, serial violent crime, environmental criminology, and the geography of crime. For investigators and police officers deployed in the field, as well as criminal analysts, Geographic Profiling is a "must have" reference.

Leads the reader through the labyrinth psyches of serial killers, rapists and other violent criminals. This title takes us on the murderer's journey, in both the psychological and geographical sense.

Geographical Offender Profiling (GOP) is the term that has emerged for the examination of where offences take place and the use of that examination to formulate views on the nature of the offender and where s/he might be based. As such, it has become the cornerstone of 'offender profiling'. By its nature, GOP bridges psychology, geography, criminology and forensic science and is of academic interest to all those disciplines as well as practical significance to police investigators. This book brings together a cross-section of the major papers published in the field that lay out the concepts and foundations of this area - including some widely quoted but difficult to obtain 'classic' papers - with an introduction that puts the papers into an overall context and a concluding extensive bibliography of the publications relevant to this rapidly growing area.

INVESTIGATIVE GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILING. This essay is a short overview of some essential elements of the Geographical Offender Profiling, like the theoretical framework of the geography of crime applied to investigation, the importance of geographic role of offender's home base during the crime site selection, the spatial strategy of crime distribution, the «geographical crime scene». The investigative implications carry out from these considerations are the need to investigate the person-places-time interlacement, the geographical interrelationships of the crime locations, and to analyze the crime from a criminological-geospatial perspective, i.e. another piece of the investigative puzzle that makes the investigative inferences potentially stronger.

Most incidents of violent crime occur between people who know each other, but in other cases (fortunately much less frequent) there are no obvious ties between the victim and the criminal, and these cases cause a great deal of social fear and uncertainty. They also result in large-scale, costly investigations and, increasingly, police are collaborating with other professionals in a process of offender profiling which might help their investigation. This book is a substantial, unique and critical account of the scope and practice of offender profiling, and its limitations. Professionals worldwide, from psychiatry, psychology, criminology and policing, have contributed accounts of their experience and knowledge across a range of approaches to offender profiling. Some use a clinical approach, based on the application of established theories of personality and psychopathy. Others argue for the effectiveness of the objective analysis of offence records to predict future offending. Some of the police contributions provide a frank description of their methods, others address the difficult issues relating to the use of offender profiling. This is a controversial subject, full of potent myth, and the object of this book is to provide a cool overview of the related scientific knowledge, now spread over many journals and reports, as well as accounts of the process and difficulties of offender profiling. It will be useful and interesting to most scientists and professionals in the field of criminal justice. This book is in the Wiley Series in the Psychology of Crime, Policing and Law.

Avoid Major Investigative TrapsWhat causes competent and dedicated investigators to make avoidable mistakes, jeopardizing the successful resolution of their cases? Authored by a 21-year police veteran and university research professor, Criminal Investigative Failures comprehensively defines and discusses the causes and problems most common to faile

This book brings together major papers published in the field of Geographical Offender Profiling to explain its scope and application in different criminal contexts. For the first time 'classic' papers have been collected together with an introduction that provides an up-to-the-minute context and an extensive bibliography.

Crime Mapping Case Studies: From Research to Practice provides a series of key examples from practice and research that demonstrate applications of crime mapping and its effect in many areas of policing and crime reduction. This book brings together case studies that show how crime mapping can be used for analysis, intelligence development, monitoring performance, and crime detection and is written by practitioners for practitioners. Leading researchers in the field describe how crime mapping is developing and exposing analytical methodologies and critiquing current practices. Including global case studies that demonstrate a particular application, analytical technique or new theoretical concept, this text offers a truly global overview of this rapidly growing area of interest. Unlike other texts on this topic, this book identifies mistakes and challenges in this field of enquiry to aid the reader in understanding the basics of this technique, giving them the opportunity to learn further.

Mapping the Trail of a Crime is packed with gripping cases, fascinating forensic science and intriguing photographs. Follow the experts as they solve some of the world's most chilling crimes, using the latest science of geographic profiling. Why do some serial killers kill only in their own homes or only in the homes of their victims? Why do some kidnappers and rapists travel far and wide to commit their crimes while others stick close to home? This fully illustrated collection of true crime stories explores a range of well-known criminal cases from a fascinating perspective. It explores the chilling and audacious crimes of infamous serial killers, rapists, and child molesters, implementing the latest geographic profiling methods used by forensic experts. (Geographic profiling is a technique that analyzes the locations of a connected series of crimes and has proven to help investigators determine patterns and anticipate where future crimes may occur or where evidence from past crimes may be found.) Each case explores the criminal's pattern of behavior, gives an overview of the significant incidents of the crime, provides a timeline of how the crime progressed, and includes a map that charts the geography of each case. Exploring the most notorious cases of our day in this unique way provides a novel perspective and gripping narrative. You'll learn how observing such geographic patterns helped investigators catch the most infamous of criminals. The cases include: Deadly visitors Richard Trenton, also known as "The Vampire of Sacramento," killed people in their homes between 1977 and 1978. Richard Ramirez, also known as, "The Night Stalker," murdered people in their homes in Los Angeles and San Francisco between 1984 and 1985. Home and Away Jeffrey Dahmer killed and cannibalized 17 people between 1977 and 1978. Arthur Gary Bishop, child killer and molester, lured young boys to his apartment in Salt Lake City from 1979 to 1983. Transports of Death David Berkowitz, also known as The Son of Sam, killed people in their cars from 1976 to 1977. Aileen Wuornos killed seven men, all of whom had picked her up as she was hitchhiking between 1989 and 1990. Nomads Ted Bundy killed women throughout Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado from 1974 to 1978. Robert Black, serial killer, child molester, and rapist, abducted and killed young girls across the UK from 1982 to 1986. In a Lonely Place Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian mass murderer and rapist, abducted and killed children in the woods from 1978 to 1990. Robert Pickton, serial killer of approximately 26 women, killed mainly prostitutes and drug users and buried them on his farm between 1997 and 2001.

Offender profiling is now viewed as an integral part of serious crime investigations by many law enforcement agencies across the world and continues to attract a high public and media profile. Despite almost three decades of research and developments in the field, the public impression of offender profiling is still influenced by misleading media portrayals, which fail to acknowledge the significant developments in theory, research and practice. This book is the only book on the market to illustrate in detail the actual practice of Behavioural Investigative Advice, its diversity in application, the underpinning academic literature and the remaining research questions and recommendations. Focussing on the professionalization of this developing discipline, it provides a fascinating insight into the modern role of a Behavioural Investigative Adviser, dispelling many of the myths still associated with offender profiling, and illustrating the continued aspiration of contemporary practitioners to adhere to the highest scientific standards. It provides a journey through the significant efforts to professionalise both the process and product of Behavioural Investigative Advice, supported by relevant theoretical, methodological and operational considerations. Edited by and containing contributions from some of the most respected and experienced researchers and practitioners working today, this book will be essential reading for Police Officers, researchers, students and anyone with an interest in the professionalization and contemporary contribution of forensic psychology to 21st century criminal investigation.