Offender Profiling & Crime Analysis

Offender profiling is a set of techniques used by law enforcement agencies to try to identify perpetrators of serious crime. There has been a rapidly growing interest in this subject over recent years. Profiling techniques have been used increasingly by police forces in many parts of the world, while fictional representations in films and television series like "Silence of the Lambs", and "Cracker" have generated an enormous popular fascination with the topic. "Offender Profiling and Crime Analysis" provides a readable account of the subject - and a picture of profiling which by no means accords with popular views and representations of what is involved. The book provides an overview of profiling techniques, offering some fascinating insights into the various approaches to profiling, and schools of thought, which have emerged - looking particularly at the work of the FBI, and of British and Dutch profilers. Key themes throughout are a concern to assess whether profiling should be treated as a scientific endeavour, or merely educated (or in some cases uneducated) guesswork; and a view that a key to an understanding of offender profiling is the need to examine the subject within a broader context of crime analysis, and a wider understanding of criminal behaviour.