"Excellent book, I have used this for my Criminal Behavior course for a number of years. Very authoritative." —Harry Cramer, Quincy University The Fourth Edition of this best-selling text provides students with the most up-to-date information on the increasingly popular field of psychological profiling. Well-known authors Ronald M. Holmes and Stephen T. Holmes build upon their continued research and involvement in field investigation as a source of relevant and often high-profile case studies to illustrate theory and application of the methods discussed. The text is particularly readable and engaging, making frequent use of illustrative tables and figures and presenting occasional photos. New to the Fourth Edition Offers a new chapter on Lizzie Borden (Chapter 14), analyzing this historic murder case with fresh insight and a unique analysis while retaining the chapter on Jack the Ripper, a classic unresolved serial murderer Covers more recent events such as the killings at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech Provides a new section on Santeria and the occult to understand the dogma and icons of these teachings and investigates reasons behind crimes committed by some followers Offers guidance to students for online graduate programs, seminars, and degrees in criminal profiling Includes updated tables and crime statistics throughout the text Presents new photos to offer authentic representations of violent crimes and offenders Intended Audience This best-seller has long been a successful supplemental text for undergraduate criminology and criminal justice courses, including Criminal Investigation, Criminal Profiling, Violent Crimes, Criminal Behavior, Field Investigation, and Forensic Psychology.

A compelling case can be made that violent crime, especially after the 1960s, was one of the most significant domestic issues in the United States. Indeed, few issues had as profound an effect on American life in the last third of the twentieth century. After 1965, crime rose to such levels that it frightened virtually all Americans and prompted significant alterations in everyday behaviors and even lifestyles. The risk of being mugged was a concern when Americans chose places to live and schools for their children, selected commuter routes to work, and planned their leisure activities. In some locales, people were afraid to leave their dwellings at any time, day or night, even to go to the market. In the worst of the post-1960s crime wave, Americans spent part of each day literally looking back over their shoulders. The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America is the first book to comprehensively examine this important phenomenon over the entire postwar era. It combines a social history of the United States with the insights of criminology and examines the relationship between rising and falling crime and such historical developments as the postwar economic boom, suburbanization and the rise of the middle class, baby booms and busts, war and antiwar protest, the urbanization of minorities, and more.

This edited volume provides cutting edge research in an easily accesible format.

On psychological profiling of criminals

This book brings together an international collection of research literature on the topics of criminal profiling and serial violent crime by integrating the respected insights of both scholars and practitioners from around the globe. It explains etiological factors and psychological mechanisms to reveal criminal motives.

A law professor and former prosecutor reveals how inconsistent ideas about violence, enshrined in law, are at the root of the problems that plague our entire criminal justice system—from mass incarceration to police brutality. We take for granted that some crimes are violent and others aren’t. But how do we decide what counts as a violent act? David Alan Sklansky argues that legal notions about violence—its definition, causes, and moral significance—are functions of political choices, not eternal truths. And these choices are central to failures of our criminal justice system. The common distinction between violent and nonviolent acts, for example, played virtually no role in criminal law before the latter half of the twentieth century. Yet to this day, with more crimes than ever called “violent,” this distinction determines how we judge the seriousness of an offense, as well as the perpetrator’s debt and danger to society. Similarly, criminal law today treats violence as a pathology of individual character. But in other areas of law, including the procedural law that covers police conduct, the situational context of violence carries more weight. The result of these inconsistencies, and of society’s unique fear of violence since the 1960s, has been an application of law that reinforces inequities of race and class, undermining law’s legitimacy. A Pattern of Violence shows that novel legal philosophies of violence have motivated mass incarceration, blunted efforts to hold police accountable, constrained responses to sexual assault and domestic abuse, pushed juvenile offenders into adult prisons, encouraged toleration of prison violence, and limited responses to mass shootings. Reforming legal notions of violence is therefore an essential step toward justice.

In this mesmerizing tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin, attorney Amanda Jaffe—star of Wild Justice, Ties That Bind, Proof Positive, and Fugitive—becomes entangled in a murder case involving Big Oil, an estranged father and son, and the greatest ethical dilemma of her career . Dale Masterson, senior partner in a large Portland, Oregon, law firm, has become wealthy and successful representing the interests of oil and coal companies. When his colleague, Christine Larson, is found dead, Masterson’s business practices are put under surveillance and a lower-level employee stands accused. The controversy surrounding the firm is magnified tenfold when Dale is found beaten to death in his mansion. But this time Dale’s son, Brandon, is seen fleeing the scene. A dedicated eco-warrior obsessed with saving the planet, Brandon confesses to killing his father—for revenge, he claims—on behalf of all the people whose lives are being destroyed by his father’s questionable clients. Veteran lawyer Amanda Jaffe is hired to represent Brandon, but what seems like an open-and-shut case quickly begins to unravel. If Brandon is really innocent—a radical activist determined to martyr himself for his cause—then who viciously murdered Dale Masterson? And what, if any, is the connection between his murder and the murder of Christine Larson? Smart, fierce, and unafraid of the truth even if it puts her in danger, Amanda begins to look deeper. What she finds will force the seasoned legal pro to make the hardest professional decision of her life.

The Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime is edited by a internationally recognized expert on serial killers, covering both murder and violent crime in their variant forms. Included will be biographies, chronologies, special interest inset boxes, up to 100 photos, comprehensive article bibliographies, and appendices for things like famous unsolved cases, celebrity murders, assasinations, original source documents, and online sources for information.

The author explores the roots of crime in poverty, racism, and social injustice.

Over the past two decades, violent crime has become one of the most serious domestic problems in the United States. Approximately 13 million people (nearly 5% of the U.S. population) are victims of crime every year, and of that, approximately one and a half million are victims of violent crime. Ensuring quality of life for victims of crime is therefore a major challenge facing policy makers and mental health providers. Helping Victims of Violent Crime grounds victim assistance treatments in a victim-centered and strengths perspective. The book explores victim assistance through systems theory: the holistic notion of examining the client in his/her environment and a key theoretical underpinning of social work practice. The basic assumption of systems theoryis homeostasis. A crime event causes a change in homeostasis and often results in disequilibrium. The victim's focus at this point is to regain equilibrium. Under the systems metatheory, coping, crisis and attribution theories provide a good framework for victim-centered intervention. Stress and coping theories posit that three factors determine the state of balance: perception of the event, available situational support, and coping mechanisms. Crisis theory offers a framework to understand a victim's response to a crime. The basic assumption of crisis theory asserts that when a crisis occurs, people respond with a fairly predictable physical and emotional pattern. The intensity and manifestation of this pattern may vary from individual to individual. Finally, attribution theory asserts that individuals make cognitive appraisals of a stressful situation in both positive and negative ways. These appraisals are based on the individual's assertion that they can understand, predict, and control circumstances and result in the victim's assignment of responsibility for solving or helping with problems that have arisen from the crime event. In summary, these four theories can delineate a definitive model for approach to the victimization process. It is from this theoretical framework that Treating Victims of Violent Crime offers assessments and interventions with a fuller understanding of the victimization recovery process. The book includes analysis of victims of family violence (child abuse, elder abuse, partner violence) as well as stranger violence (sexual assault, homicide, and terrorism).