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Feedback (Selection) from Visitors
(in Chronological Order)
E-mail your comments here (feedback@criminalprofiling.ch).
If you would like to exclude the possibility of being mentioned here, please indicate this in your e-mail.
Recent E-mail of general interest
Dr. Helinä Häkkänen, Group leader, National Bureau of Investigation and
Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki
Please note that the web-pages of the Finnish Investigative Psychology
Research Group [see Dr. Häkkänen's e-mail below] have changed. In the future you will find your way to the
site through http://www.helsinki.fi/hum/ylpsy/English/index.html.
Sincerely
Helinä Häkkänen
General Feedback
By reader CnnVct (July 2006)
I teach a new Criminal Profiling course in the UK. I have been looking at your site and find it one of the best sites for criminal profiling on the internet. I hope you will increase your site and I refer all my students to the site as a balanced and totally 'agenda free' resource.
by J.D. Miller, Sophomore psychology major, Marywood University
I appreciate your informative website. It is been the primary source for my presentations in both a Multi-media and Forensic Psych class. I have given you credit in my newsletters and powerpoint presentations, and I believe your site's a goldmine. Thanks so much for it. I hope to pursue a career in forensic psych or criminal profiling.
Thanks again!
by lic. iur. R. Schwyter, Untersuchungsrichter, Zug
Ich bin bei meinen Recherchen zum Thema Profiling auf Ihre sehr interessante und aufschlussreiche Seite gestossen. Ich gratuliere Ihnen hierzu. Es tut gut zu sehen, dass das Thema Profiling in der Schweiz endlich akademisch angepackt wird. (...) Ich werde demnach mit Sicherheit ein häufiger Besucher Ihrer Website sein und würde mich auch gerne an einem Netzwerk "Profiling" beteiligen oder gar meine Beiträge leisten.
Feedback to the
legal issues page
by L. Imbach, lic. phil. I, S. Raeber, lic. phil. I, Psychologen, Zürich
[Teilweise wiedergegeben] Mit viel Interesse haben wir Ihren Artikel bzw. Ihr Kapitel zum Thema 'Täterprofil aus interdisziplinärer Sicht' in der Schrift 'Information und Recht' gelesen. Als im forensischen Bereich tätige Psychologe beschäftigen wir uns seit geraumer Zeit mit dem selben Fachgebiet. Wir sind daran interessiert, dem Criminalprofiling in der Schweiz im Rahmen der polizeilichen und untersuchungsrichterlichen Arbeit mehr Aufmerksamkeit und Gewicht zu verschaffen. Als wichtige Voraussetzung dazu erachten wir die Weiterentwicklung und ständige Überprüfung der Methoden des Criminalprofiling sowie die Erarbeitung einer seriösen wissenschaftlichen Basis, welche die Anwendung dieser Methode schliesslich legitimieren soll. In diesem Sinne finden wir Ihren Beitrag sehr differenziert und auch richtungsweisend.
Recent E-mails of general interest
Dr. Hans-Joachim Gerst, Rechtsanwalt, Hamburg
Recht herzlichen Dank für die so kurzfristige Berücksichtigung meiner Arbeit [Dissertation: "Profiler - Vom Täterprofilersteller in den USA und der
Implementierbarkeit einzelner Aspekte seiner Tätigkeit in das deutsche
Rechtssystem", Herbert Utz Verlag 2002] auf Ihrer Homepage. Ich werde sie schon aus Fortbildungsgründen weiter gelegentlich besuchen.
Dr. Helinä Häkkänen, Group leader, The Police College of Finland, University of Helsinki
Dear colleagues,
This is to inform you of the new research group in Finland entitled
The Investigative Psychology Research Group. The group was founded
in April 2001 and is located at the University of Helsinki.
The research group applies a wide range of psychological theories
and methods to questions relevant for police work. The general aim
of the research group is to develop scientific research in
investigative psychology as well as to contribute to the growth of
the discipline through teaching. A more practical aim is to increase
the knowledge of the domain among the police and to develop
scientific models that could be applied to police work and would
make criminal investigations more effective. Several independent
studies are carried out in the research group, mainly focusing on
the following issues:
- Offender Profiling in Violent and Property Crimes
- Linking Series of Crimes
- Geographical Profiling
- Risk Assessment (Predicting Violent Behaviour)
- Mental Health and Crime
- Investigative Decision-Making Skills
- Interrogation and Detecting Lies and Deceit
For more information and study results see IPRU.
Feedback to the
scientific articles page
by Alexandra Wenig, Universität Jena/Deutschland (Germany)
[Teilweise wiedergegeben] Ich bin gerade durch Zufall auf Ihre Seite gestossen. Ich finde es sehr erfreulich, dass endlich auch ausserhalb des amerikanischen Raumes das Thema mehr Interessenten (vor allem im wissenschaftlichen Raum) findet.
Author's note
Vielen Dank für Ihre Zuschrift und die zahlreichen Literaturangaben. Diese sind auf der oben erwähnten Seite zu finden.
General Feedback
by Dr. Bruce McDowell, www.oundleschool.org.uk/
Dear Sir/Madam,
I find your website very useful, in my preparation of lessons on
offender profiling. The 'successful cases' link only provides one detailed text on the tylenol murders, and the link to Edmund Kemper navigates to another page with no text. Is there anything that can be done?
Best wishes
Bruce McDowell
Dr. Bruce McDowell
Laundimer House, UK
www.oundleschool.org.uk/
Author's note
Thank you for your e-mail and I am glad you found the site useful. The Kemper page should work, please use the direct link if you can't access it through the menu: http://www.criminalprofiling.ch/kemper.html.
Feedback to the
introduction article
by L. F. W. Schneider (Germany)
Ich habe den Artikel mit Interesse gelesen, bin allerdings ein wenig
überrascht, wie kritiklos Sie die Ideen von Douglas, Ressler usw. übernehmen. Der Artikel enthält auch einige sachliche Fehler. Bei der Darstellung der "organized" und "disorganized" crime scenes schreiben Sie, dass beide Arten sehr selten als "a mixture of the two" zu finden sind. Das ist aber nicht der Fall, die "mixture" ist sehr viel häufiger als die reine Form. Diese Dichtomy, so verblüffend einfach sie zu sein scheint, ist auch sehr gefährlich und fragwürdig, weil sie mit psychologischen Aussagen verknüpft sind, wie hohe soziale Kompetenz u.ä. Als Kriminalbeamter mit über 30 Jahren Erfahrung, der z.Zt. eine Mordserie zu bearbeiten hat, glaube ich sagen zu können, dass kein Tatort verlässliche Hinweise auf die psychologische Struktur eines Täters geben kann. Das statistische Material, auf dem die Feststellungen beruhren ist so gering, dass es leichtfertig wäre, sich alleine darauf zu stützen.
Ein weiterer sachlicher Fehler ist die Aussage: "Furthermore, in
multiple homicides the killer is usually of the same race as his victims." Diese Ansicht hat John Douglas in dem Buch "Journey into Darkness" im Kapitel "Have they got the wrong man?" korrigiert. In Europa hat die Festellung ohnehin nie Gültigkeit gehabt.
Das Bundeskriminalamt in Deutschland und verschiedene Landeskriminalämter erstellen seit einigen Jahre "Operative Fallanalysen", die zwar auch von den Ideen des FBI inspiriert sind, aber deren Schwergewicht auf einer Rekonstruktion des Fallgeschehens liegt. Psychologische Profile des Täters werden zwar auch erstellt, aber mit sehr vorsichtigen Aussagen.
Ich bin überzeugt davon, dass die Strafverfolgungsbehörden (Polizei/Justiz) sich mit (den) neuen Methoden auseinandersetzen müssen. Wir tun das auch in dem Fall den ich zur Zeit bearbeite entstanden "Operative Fallanalysen" haben wir "Geographische Fallanalysen" machen lassen und sind ständig auf der Suche nach neuen Möglichkeiten. Dabei erstaunt mich immer wieder, wie leichtgläubig amerikanische Ideen übernommen werden. Kritisches hinterfragen findet man höchst selten. Dabei sollte gerade die Universitätsforschung in dieser Richtung tätig
werden.
Mit freundlichen Grüssen
L. F. W. Schneider
Author's note
Vielen Dank für Ihr Mail. Diesen Text hatte ich noch während des Studiums verfasst, und auf Grund der fehlenden Erfahrung in der Schweiz fällt es nicht immer leicht, Äusserungen bzw. Publikationen amerikanischer (erfahrener) Fachleute fundiert zu kritisieren. Dieses Manko soll jedoch in Zukunft behoben werden. Vgl. auch meinen neuesten Aufsatz.
Feedback to the women in crime page
by Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, Ph.D., Violent Crimes Institute, President, www.drdsk.com
Hi,
I saw your page and thought you might want some updates. The section on
female serial killers unfortunately has inaccurate information. I am a
criminal profiler who has studied serial killers for 17 years. Last year
I had a book come on out female serial killers "The New Predator: Women
Who Kill, Profiles of Female Serial Killers." Aileen Wuornos was not the
first or only female serial killer. There have been others. In fact,
since 1970, there have been over 26 cases of female serial killers in
the U.S. Most researchers are unaware because female killers get let
media attention, and further, no other researcher was able to interview
these elusive killers for a book on profiling them. Thus, they have been
ignored.
I just though since you appear to be very serious about this subject
that would want accurate information.
Best,
Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, Ph.D.
Violent Crimes Institute, President
www.drdsk.com
Author's note
Thank you for your taking the time to write. I will update the Women in Crime page as soon as I find the time.
Feedback to the successful cases page
by Det. John J. Baeza, NYPD (ret.), Chair, Ethics Committee, Academy of Behavioral Profiling, www.profiling.org, Special Victims, Inc., www.special-victims.com, Premises Liability Resource, www.premises-liability.net
Hello,
Please note that the cases you cite as examples of profiling successes
in
your recently published article were not solved in any way by criminal
profiling. You write:
"A study in the field of behavioral psychology (Pinizzotto and Finkel,
1990) provides initial data on its effectiveness. Results suggest that
profilers can produce more useful and valid criminal profiles than clinical psychologists or even experienced crime investigators. In contrast to this study, it should not be overlooked that this method is fraught with many difficulties and pressures in the real world. However, impressive successes, such as the apprehension of (in alphabetical order) Theodore Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Theodore Kaczynski (the "Una Bomber"), Henry Lee Lucas or Edmund Emil Kemper show that this method is at least helping to solve violent and other crimes."
You may want to review these cases again and consider revising this
statement. Below, I have included a brief synopsis of how each of the
offenders you mention (including two alleged successes from the website)
was apprehended:
Theodore Bundy: Apprehended the first time after a police officer
stopped his vehicle because it looked suspicious. A pair of handcuff, a mask and other items were found in the vehicle and Bundy was arrested on
suspicion of burglary. After escaping from jail, he was apprehended once again while driving a stolen vehicle in Florida.
Jeffrey Dahmer: Dahmer was apprehended when Tracy Edwards escaped his
control. Edwards, who still had a handcuff attached to one wrist,
reported that Dahmer had handcuffed him. The police responded when Dahmer went to get the handcuff key they saw photographs of dismembered body parts. After a struggle, he was arrested.
John Wayne Gacy: Apprehended after police found that he was the
contractor who offered employment to Robert Piest just before he disappeared. The police then ran a background check on Gacy and found that he had previously been convicted and served time for the sodomy of a teenager. Gacy then became a hot suspect. Good police work led to his arrest and conviction.
Theodore Kaczynski (the "Una Bomber"): Kaczynski was apprehended only
after his "manifesto" was finally published in a major newspaper. His brother recognized the writing style and notified authorities that his brother was a suspect.
Henry Lee Lucas: Lucas was first suspected in the disappearance of his
80-year-old employer and his common law wife by a sheriff. The same
sheriff later found Lucas in possession of a handgun (in violation of Texas law since Lucas was an ex-convict). He again questioned Lucas and this time was able to elicit a confession.
Edmund Emil Kemper: Turned himself in to police.
David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") (mentioned on the website): Was
apprehended after a New York City patrolman issued a parking ticket to Berkowitz's vehicle which was parked in the area surrounding one of the crimes.
Arthur Shawcross (mentioned on the web site): Arguably, this may be one
of the only cases in which profiling actually assisted in the apprehension of an offender.
Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.
Respectfully,
Det. John J. Baeza, NYPD (ret.)
Author's note
Thank you for your clarification. I have re-named the section to Case Analysis, because it is about the analysis of the behavior of the offender in retrospect, not the actual case at the time it was active. Those famous cases I mention are used just as examples of how one would profile the criminal, should the need arise. I have also changed the respective section in the introduction article. I hope this misunderstanding is now cleared up. Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.
Feedback to the research links page
by D/Cst K. J. Falconer, Ontario Provincial Police, Provincial ViCLAS Centre, Orillia, Ontario
Re: http://www.criminalprofiling.ch/research.html
I have taken a quick look at your Criminal profiling Research Site and
would like to bring to your attention two links which bear the wrong URL.
Under the heading - "Scientific Research Links"(AP in California: Links
and Information VICLAS
California, U.S.
Both these links direct the user to the Ontario Provincial Police -
Provincial ViCLAS Centre in Ontario Canada and have nothing in common
with the labels that are affixed to the links.
For your information.
Respectfully,
Jim Falconer
Author's note
Thank you for mentioning this. I have already fixed the links in question.
General Feedback
by Dott. Angelo Zappalà, Forensic Psychologist, University of Turin, Department of Psychology, Italy
Hi,
the Italian Forensic Sciences Police Department (UACV unit, Violent
Crime Analysis Unit), the Department of Psychology of Turin (Italy), the Department of Criminology of Milan (Italy) are working on a project
(financing by the Minister of University) to contribute to the
preparation of a tool to examine the offender's psychological profile.
This methodology may become a valid support in the investigation of
homicides without apparent reason, or those crimes made by an individual such as a pattern of repeated murders, and/or attacks characterized by extreme ferocity. This tool would allow the user to infer, starting from the crime scene, the characteristics of the perpetrator himself. The above methodology, would be specific to the Italian criminal who commits the above criminal acts. The application of this methodological tool would be applicable particularly to the specific characteristics of such criminality in our nation.
We have presented the project in Liverpool at VI congress of
investigative psychology on 8 january 2001, you can see an abstract at
http://www.liv.ac.uk/InvestigativePsychology/biennial/biennialprog.html#a. We would like to share and exchange news, information and experience about criminal profling and homicide studies.
Best regards
Dott. Angelo Zappalà
Feedback to the introduction article
by Dr. Maurice Godwin, Criminal Investigative Psychologist,
Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice Studies
Methodist College, North Carolina, USA, http://www.drmauricegodwin.com
Nice web site design; however, there is a lot inaccurate information on
the site. For example, although Howard Teten and Pat Mullany where the
original individuals who developed what is 'now' called an offender
profile for the FBI only (others in England came before Teten and
Mullany) - their work was not referred to as profiling back then. Also,
the behavioral science unit did not start with Howard Teten and Pat
Mullany's work - it was only developed around the time (1978) when
Ressler started to interview serial killers.
Also, the project that was the impetus to the FBI method of profiling
was actually the 1978 serial murder project started by Ressler. However,
to date, the FBI's work can hardly be referred to as 'research' mainly
because 'no' actual empirical research has ever been carried out on any
data. Rather, the FBI's approach to profiling - just as is most others
approach to profiling - is that of 'brain storming' while sitting around
a table.
To that end, if you have not read either of my two books - I think that
you might find them interesting. More information can be found at my web
site:
http://www.drmauricegodwin.com
Regards,
Maurice Godwin, Ph.D.
Addition to the scientific articles page
by Michael McGrath, M.D., Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester (NY), USA and president of the Academy of Behavioral Profiling, Rochester (NY) USA
"You might be interested in:
McGrath, M.: Criminal Profiling: Is There a Role for the Forensic Psychiatrist? Journal of American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 28: 315-24, 2000
Mike M."
Thank you! This article was added to the list and is available online.
Feedback to the introduction article
An e-mail from Maurice Godwin, Ph.D. (USA), author of Hunting Serial Predators (CRC Press)
I noticed the article on your web site about Howard Teten and the investigative support unit. No actual data were collected or analyzed on serial killers while Teten was with the unit. It wasn't until the late 1970s when Ressler started visiting serial killers in prisons that some data were collected.
Another general misconception is, that the FBI has all this data on serial killers. If that is true, (which it is not) it does us no good if aspects of that data is never revealed in academic publications or in research form - which it hasn't.
I outline all this in my new book.
Regards,
Maurice Godwin Ph.D.
Author's note
I would like to thank Dr. Godwin for taking the time to read and react to my article and for his valuable input. I have since modified the part of my article which lead to some misunderstandings and the new version is now available online. The FBI has indeed not been as open about its method and knowledge as one could wish for, but there are (not many) informative publications around, such as The Crime Classification Manual. However, many of the available books are not scientific enough for academic study.
Press Release regarding Mr Godwin's book
Hunting Serial Predators (CRC Press) - Is an eminently readable work that is unique in serial murder investigations - Dr. John Philpin - Forensic Psychologist and Author of Tunnel of the Night and Stalemate Hunting Serial Predators is the first book if its kind dealing with the crime of serial murder that empirically examines the crime scene behavior of serial killers. Also discussed in the book is how Dr. Godwin used his profiling approach to profile the serial killer in Raleigh, N.C. - John Williams Jr., back in 1997. Orders can be made via Dr. Godwin's web site at:
http://www.investigativepsych.com or http://www.amazon.com (author's note: or http://www.amazon.de)
Dr. Maurice Godwin lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is an adjunct professor at Vermont College of Norwich University in their distance learning MA Degree program with a concentration in criminal investigative psychology. He is a former police officer in the State of North Carolina. Dr. Godwin was one of the first project coordinators for a National Institute of Justice grant for implementing community policing in a rural area. Dr. Godwin is also the author of journal articles on psychological and geographical profiling.
Dr. Godwin owns his own private consulting group, and he has worked as a consultant to police and others in developing psychological and geographical profiles. He has lectured in the United States and Europe on serial murder, cyber stalking, and criminal investigative analysis. Dr. Godwin received his Associate's degree from Vance-Granville Community College, a Bachelor's degree from Trevecca Nazarene University, a Master's Degree from Indiana State University, and his doctorate from The University of Liverpool, England.
Dr. Godwin's teaching and research includes concentration in areas of applied social psychology and criminology. Extensive background in using these areas of applied disciplines to develop models of criminal behavior, such as theoretical and operational expert systems for linking crimes. Provided assistance to law enforcement in several states in regard to psychological and geographical profiling - with positive results. Have a proven record of teaching and presenting research on topics, such as serial murder, child abduction, offender profiling and linking crimes at conferences and seminars throughout the world. Expertise includes research, teaching and lecturing on Modeling Criminal Behavior, Developing Linking Expert Systems, Cyber-Stalking, Serial Crimes Investigations and Offender Profiling and Geographical Profiling.
CRC Press.
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