Hunting Serial Predators: A Multivariate Classification Approach to Profiling Violent Behavior

✍ Scribed by Grover Maurice Godwin

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 320
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Godwin deserves an A+ for giving a scientific look at the so-called "science" of criminal profiling. Criminal profiling, as practiced by the FBI, -- and as I had long suspected -- has gotten much more Hollywood hype than it deserves. This book is NOT written in the entertaining film noir narratives of John Douglas et al., nor is it a compilation of juicy murder cases. Rather, it is a scientific analysis of the profiling methods as they ought to be employed. Godwin exposes the statistical pitfalls and the wrong turns made by the current FBI profiling methods, and he suggests ways in which the profiling methods could be improved. Even if you aren't a statistician (with knowledge of cluster analysis and correlation coefficients), Godwin gives plenty of solid and readable introductory material and conclusions which can easily be understood by the interested layman. This is a must read for anyone considering a career in law enforcement and criminology.