Rating: 
Summary: Useful--even for a non-law enforcement reader
Review: This book is a well-organized collection of information. I have no background in law enforcement, criminal justice or even psychology. Yet, I understood it well. Anyone interested in taking the time to understand in some depth how these criminals think and act would learn a great deal. It really illustrates the development of criminal profiling techniques. The book is broken into sections, each of which is broken into chapters. It is written by a group of people, including: Robert Ressler (FBI), John Douglas (FBI), Anne Burgess (nurse/researcher), a medical examiner.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I thought!!
Review: This book is written more like a textbook and unless you have a degree in Criminal Justice or something of that nature, it reads like stereo instructions! Not impressed at all!
Rating:
Summary: Not what I thought!!
Review: This book is written more like a textbook and unless you have a degree in Criminal Justice or something of that nature, it reads like stereo instructions! Not impressed at all!
Rating:
Summary: Informative
Review: This book was kind of boring in places but then again it's not supposed to necessarily be entertaining. I ordered it after seeing the authors on tv several times where they were interviewing serial killers and talking about profiling. I believe one of them actually invented the entire idea of profiling and he used his profiling techniques to catch that 'Gacy the clown' guy who buried 30 kids in his basement. This book is very informative and gives insights into the minds of the homicidal psychopaths. It's interesting to see how looking at a crime scene tells so much about the offender. It's like the killers are expressing their horrible natures in symbolic, ritualistic ways. If I understand the authors' conclusions correctly sexual psychopaths gets completely consumed by their horrible fantasies to the point where they become more or less disfunctional. (That's assuming they ever were functional.) In their fantasy world the killer has complete control and domination over everyone else which is what they crave. At some point they start to project these dark fantasies into the real world. There's also an interesting section about the affects of a murder on the families. Not surprisingly these affects are all negative and can be severe: "I can't have sex with my husband anymore because every time he touches me, I think about what the rapist did to her." "I hate Halloween. My sons body was found in a desert area badly decomposed, a week after he was murdered. Each year when I see the skeletons at Halloween, they remind me of my son and what he must have looked like." In another case the father lost his job (without pension) because he couldn't concentrate anymore and the mother was also out on sick leave from her job. There's also a section on how a female should possibly react if confonted by a potentially violent psychopath. Sexual assault is horrible in its own unique way I guess. I may read some more books about this subject. I would like to find more case studies of what the psychopath did and how the profilers figured out who the killer was based on the evidence. I think subjects related to forensic science are getting very popular nowadays. There's a lot of tv shows coming out which are based on some of the non fiction shows like 'Cold Case Files' and 'Forensic Files'. Jeff Marzano
Rating:
Summary: Informative
Review: This book was kind of boring in places but then again it's not supposed to necessarily be entertaining. I ordered it after seeing the authors on tv several times where they were interviewing serial killers and talking about profiling. I believe one of them actually invented the entire idea of profiling and he used his profiling techniques to catch that 'Gacy the clown' guy who buried 30 kids in his basement. This book is very informative and gives insights into the minds of the homicidal psychopaths. It's interesting to see how looking at a crime scene tells so much about the offender. It's like the killers are expressing their horrible natures in symbolic, ritualistic ways. If I understand the authors' conclusions correctly sexual psychopaths gets completely consumed by their horrible fantasies to the point where they become more or less disfunctional. (That's assuming they ever were functional.) In their fantasy world the killer has complete control and domination over everyone else which is what they crave. At some point they start to project these dark fantasies into the real world. There's also an interesting section about the affects of a murder on the families. Not surprisingly these affects are all negative and can be severe: "I can't have sex with my husband anymore because every time he touches me, I think about what the rapist did to her." "I hate Halloween. My sons body was found in a desert area badly decomposed, a week after he was murdered. Each year when I see the skeletons at Halloween, they remind me of my son and what he must have looked like." In another case the father lost his job (without pension) because he couldn't concentrate anymore and the mother was also out on sick leave from her job. There's also a section on how a female should possibly react if confonted by a potentially violent psychopath. Sexual assault is horrible in its own unique way I guess. I may read some more books about this subject. I would like to find more case studies of what the psychopath did and how the profilers figured out who the killer was based on the evidence. I think subjects related to forensic science are getting very popular nowadays. There's a lot of tv shows coming out which are based on some of the non fiction shows like 'Cold Case Files' and 'Forensic Files'. Jeff Marzano
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book for Profiling Techniques
Review: This is a book written by the people who developed the technique of profiling. It is very methodological in its application. There is hard evidence and lots of experience to back up the findings. This is something that you wont find in most other books on profiling. It is indeed the bible on profiling techniques.
Rating:
Summary: an informative book
Review: This is a great book written by one of the acknowledged experts and pioneers in the field of criminal profiling.This book may read like a textbook to some people,but its still interesting.Robert Ressler,John Douglas,and Roy Hazelwood have been a tremendous asset to the FBI.
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