Serial Crime: Theoretical and Practical Issues in Behavioral Profiling

Serial Crime, Second Edition, examines serial predatory behavior and is divided into two main parts.

Part one deals with behavioral profiling, and covers a variety of critical issues from the history of profiling and the theoretical schools of thought to its treatment in the mainstream media. This updated edition includes new sections on the problems of induction, metacognition in criminal profiling, and investigative relevance. Part two deals more specifically with a number of types of serial crime including stalking, rape, murder, and arson. Chapters on each of these crimes provide definitions and thresholds, and discussions of the offenders, the crime, and its dynamics. Considerations for behavioral profiling and investigations and the development of new paradigms in each area are interwoven throughout. Topics are conceptually and practically related since profiling has typically seen most application in serial crimes and similar investigations.

The unique presentation of the book successfully connects the concepts and creates links to criminal behavior across crimes―murder, sexual assault, and arson―something no other title does. The connection of serial behavior to profiling, the most useful tool in discovering behavior patterns, is also new to the body of literature available and serves to examine the ideal manner in which profiling can be used in conjunction with behavioral science to positively affect criminal investigations.

• Provides a theoretical and practical foundation for understanding the motivation and dynamics in a range of serial offenses
• Illustrates the promise, purposes and pitfalls of behavioral profiling in the investigation of various serial crimes
• Numerous case examples show the real world uses of behavioral profiling in investigations, as well as highlighting a variety of issues in understanding and investigating serial crime

Wayne Petherick is Associate Professor of Criminology at Bond University in Australia. Wayne’s areas of interest include forensic criminology, forensic victimology, criminal motivations, criminal profiling, and applied crime analysis. He has worked on risk and threat cases, a mass homicide, stalking, rape, and a variety of civil suits involving premises liability and crime prevention. He has presented to audiences in Australia and abroad, and has published in a variety of areas including social science and legal works in the areas of criminal profiling, expert evidence, stalking, serial crimes, criminal motivations, and victimology. Wayne is co-editor of Forensic Criminology, and editor of Profiling and Serial Crime: Theoretical and Practical Issues, now in its third edition.