The art and science of criminal profiling
as explored by police officers and other law enforcement officials.
Dr. Robert J. Girod, Sr. earned
a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Criminology and Public Administration from The Union Institute and University and a post-doctoral
certificate in Leadership from Harvard University. Dr. Robert Girod is a supervisor in the Detective Bureau with the Fort
Wayne Police Department (Indiana), a member of the FBI’s Federal Bank Robbery Task Force and a part-time “special
deputy” for the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
Dr. Robert J. Girod has served
as a Major in the U.S. Army Reserve and the Indiana Guard Reserve. He is an adjunct professor and associate faculty member
at seven universities. Dr. Robert J. Girod is the author of Profiling The Criminal Mind: Behavioral Science and Criminal Investigative
Analysis.
According to the book description,
“Profiling the Criminal Mind is, as the subtitle indicates, is a text and reference on behavioral science and criminal
investigative analysis for investigators, forensic scientists, prosecutors, behavioral scientists, and academics. This compilation
combines crime scene forensics and experience with behavioral science to get into the criminal's mind and interpret crime
scenes.
A practical guide to applied criminology,
the author brings together his years of experience as a detective/investigator and professor of criminology and criminal justice
to outline an inter-disciplinary approach to analyzing crime scenes and crime scene behavior. Multi-discipline sleuths and
researchers into the criminal mind will find this combined approach to analysis a valuable strategic approach to the study
of violent criminal behavior.”
From
1985 to 1988, Dr. Grover Maurice Godwin was a police officer for the Oxford Police Department (North Carolina). He left the Oxford Police Department to pursue his education.
After completing his undergraduate and graduate work in the United States, he went to England “where he studied
in a one of a kind criminal psychology program at the University of Liverpool. Dr. Godwin is first American to hold a Ph.D.
in Investigative Psychology. His expertise and scientific research in areas of psychology, serial killers, criminal behavior,
and linking unsolved crimes distinctly sets him apart from the vast number of criminal profilers who rely on intuitive based
opinions.” In addition to his teaching at university and his forensic consulting
business, he is the author of five books: Tracker: Hunting Down Serial Killers;
Hunting Serial Predators; Slave Master, True murder story of Internet Serial Killer; Criminal Psychology and Forensic Technology:
A Collaborative Approach to Effective Profiling; and, Hunting Serial Predators: A Multivariate Approach to Profiling Violent
Behavior.
According
to the book description of Tracker: Hunting Down Serial Killers,
“Forget Silence of the Lambs; Hannibal Lecters, and Clarice Starlings do not exist. The public believes that the FBI
is protecting us from this most deadly of human predators, but the FBI profilers never caught a serial killer. The profiles
they turn out are based on interviews with thirty-six convicted killers, out of which only twenty-five were serial killers.
Conducted in 1978, the study has since been condemned as statistically and demographically invalid. Recently courts have begun
throwing out some profilers’ testimony, with judges ruling that the profiles amount to little more than voodoo.
In
contrast, Maurice Godwin uses inductive analysis, environmental psychology, behavioral psychology, crime site information,
and other factors to create the most accurate psycho-geographical profiles available. In Tracker, we learn that "[Godwin's]
work is based on the collection and critical analysis of over 100,000 data points and 200 different crime scene actions that
could be used to profile the killer." Godwin explains, "Instead of relying on interviews with murderers, I studied specific
pieces of behavioral information available from the crime scene or case file to develop a psychological profile of the killer
and to pinpoint where he lives." Godwin further states, "I’m more interested in getting in the killer’s shoes
rather than his mind."
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