By
Robert Keppel, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, U.S.A.
William Birnes, Shadow Lawn Press, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Description
Serial killers like Seattle's Ted Bundy, Maryland's Beltway Sniper, Atlanta's Wayne Williams, or England's Peter Sutcliffe usually outsmart
the task forces on their trail for long periods of time. Keppel and Birnes take readers inside the operations of serial killer task forces
to learn why. What is the underlying psychology of a serial killer and why this defeats task force investigations?
This is the first
book of its kind that combines state-of-the-art psychological assessment experience with the expertise of a homicide investigator who
has tracked some of this country's most notorious serial killers. The author also brings to the book hands-on best practices gleaned
from the experience of other task forces.
Readers, both professionals and students, will benefit from the comprehensive and critical
case reviews, the analysis of what went wrong, what went right, and the after-action recommendations of evaluators in the US, UK, and
Canada.
The book covers:
* The nature of the psychology of a serial killer
* How crime assessment profiling reveals that psychology
* Why psychological profiles fail
* How serial killer task forces defeat themselves
* How the media can, and usually does, undermine
the task force operation
* The big secret of all serial killer investigations: police already have the killer's name
* The best practices
for catching a serial killer
Audience:
Criminologists, forensic psychologists and psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, social/organizational psychologists, police executives and instructors
