Need Help Looking For A Book

DipStick McSwindler

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TrollHammaren

I should probably mention that criminal profiling is mostly considered bollocks in the psychology field, so I doubt you'd find anything specifically on profiling, but you'll definitely find something on criminal psychology, forensic psychology, and criminology. If you'd be interested in that sort of thing I could point you in the direction of a few textbooks.

DipStick McSwindler

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elfan

Hi there,
I'm a trainee forensic psychologist. As the previous poster said criminal profiling in mostly considered crap because it has been taken over by popular tv culture and is just seen to be based on people's ideas instead of science. In applied psychology this has been changing though- mainly due to David Canter's work on investigative psychology. This incorporates scientific methods such as smallest space analysis to analyse crime scenes and draw statistical inferences about the likely perpetrators. If you are intereseted in this area get "Investigative Psychology: Offender Profiling and the analysis of criminal action" (2009) David Canter & Donna Youngs. In terms of jobs in this area they are pretty much non-existent. Large police forces in the UK are alligned with forensic psychologists who they liase with on a part-time by case basis. Therefore you could not make a living being a "profiler" but it is something you could do every now and then to supplement your day job. I hope this helps!

TrollHammaren

If it's just a passing interest you have and you're not interested in the more academic side of criminal psychology you could check out "Body in Question" by Brian Innes. He's not an academic (at least I don't think he is), but his book is interesting enough, with plenty of gory pictures. I read it when I was like 15 so I don't know whether I'd still find it any use nowadays. I'll ask some of the guys who took the Forensic Psychology module in my class what textbook they used.

elfan

A good general academic text book would be: "Forensic Psychology" edited by Graham Towl and David Crighton (2010) BPS Blackwell. A book which blurs the lines between academia and pop psych would be the American book "Criminal Profiling, Fourth Edition: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis" (2011) Brent Turvey.