In The Mind of The Psychopath

Came across the transcript of a very interesting radio brodcast on psychopathy. The programme which aired back in March 2002 was introduced as follows:

"In fiction there's been Hannibal Lecter and American Psycho. In real life, the legacy of notorious serial killer Ted Bundy still resonates. But how much can we believe of Hollywood's Tinseltown representations of psychopaths? What is it that defines psychopathic personality? Is it a distinct psychological state? And what hope for a cure?"

The show features the thoughts and views of Dr James Blair and Stuart Skinner. At the time, Dr Blair was a Senior Lecturer at the Insitute of Cognitive Neuroscience University College London and Stuart Skinner was a researcher in Forensic Psychology at the School of Psychology University of Queensland.

If you would like to read the transcript from this engaging broadcast, you can do so by Clicking Here

More Information

The All About Forensic Psychology Website has a page dedicated to understanding the Psychopath, which you can access by Clicking Here.

Recommended Reading

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of The Psychopaths Among us by Robert Hare.



Book Description

Most people are both repelled and intrigued by the images of cold-blooded, conscienceless murderers that increasingly populate our movies, television programs, and newspaper headlines. With their flagrant criminal violation of society's rules, serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are among the most dramatic examples of the psychopath. Individuals with this personality disorder are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know the difference between right and wrong, yet they are terrifyingly self-centered, remorseless, and unable to care about the feelings of others. Perhaps most frightening, they often seem completely normal to unsuspecting targets and they do not always ply their trade by killing.

Presenting a compelling portrait of these dangerous men and women based on 25 years of distinguished scientific research, Dr. Robert D. Hare vividly describes a world of con artists, hustlers, rapists, and other predators who charm, lie, and manipulate their way through life. Are psychopaths mad, or simply bad? How can they be recognized? And how can we protect ourselves? This book provides solid information and surprising insights for anyone seeking to understand this devastating condition.

Click Here To Get Hold of The Book

Visitors From The UK Click Here

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www.all-about-forensic-psychology.com

A Free & Comprehensive Guide to The World of Forensic Psychology

Criminal Profiling Articles

Read a very interesting criminal profiling article in Monitor on Psychology, the online publication of The American Psychological Association. The first article entitled, Criminal profiling: the reality behind the myth by Lea Winerman documents how Forensic psychologists are working with law enforcement officials to integrate psychological science into criminal profiling. The article covers a range of topics including:

How Criminal Profiling Works

Psychology's Contributions to Criminal Profiling

Crime Action Profiling

The Psychology-Law Enforcement Relationship

Click Here to read the article in full. From this page, you can also access another related article that addresses whether criminal profiling works.

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www.all-about-forensic-psychology.com

A Free & Comprehensive Guide to The World of Forensic Psychology

The Study and Practice of Forensic Psychology: A Comprehensive Review

The Study and Practice of Forensic Psychology: A Comprehensive Review is an excellent article that first appeared in the February edition of the forensic psychology newsletter. It was written by Dr. Christopher Cronin, a licensed clinical psychologist who has held academic positions in Europe (University of Maryland, Munich Campus), Australia (Flinders University of South Australia) and the United States (Transylvania University and Saint Leo University).

Dr Cronin has practiced forensic psychology since 1991 conducting competency to stand trial evaluations and criminal responsibility evaluations for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He is Professor and Director of Graduate Training at Saint Leo University in Florida and has conducted over 1800 court-ordered forensic evaluations in the Tampa Bay area.

For anybody interested in forensic psychology this is a must read article, and with this in mind, I have added the article to the main forensic psychology website, which can be accessed by Clicking Here.

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www.all-about-forensic-psychology.com

A Free & Comprehensive Guide to The World of Forensic Psychology

Expanding The Use of Geographical Profiling

Expanding The Use of Geographical Profiling



Read a very interesting news article about how geographic profiling techniques are going to be employed to help Canadian military forces uncover the supply chain for deadly roadside bombs and other explosive devices in Afghanistan. The plan is to produce threat maps which give a probability of where bomb making factories, meeting points and organization points are likely to be.

How Does Geographical Profiling Work?

Geographic profiling works on the premise that the location of a crime site can provide vital information. It assesses and predicts the offender’s most likely place of residence, place of work, social venues and travel routes etc.

Geographic profiling consists of both quantitative (objective) scientific geographic techniques and qualitative (subjective) components e.g. a reconstruction and interpretation of the offender’s mental map.’

The primary geographic technique is a computerised system known as Criminal Geographic Targeting (CGT). Put simply, spatial data i.e. data relating to time, distance and movement to and from the crime scenes is analysed to produce a three-dimensional model known as a jeopardy surface.



The jeopardy surface contains height and colour probability codes which when superimposed onto a map of the area in which the serial crimes have been committed give an indication of the likelihood of offender residence or place of work.

Recommended Reading



Geographic Profiling by Kim Rossmo introduces and explains a cutting-edge investigative methodology used to analyze the locations of a connected series of crimes to determine the most likely area of offender residence. It allows investigators and law enforcement officers to effectively manage information and focus their investigation.

This work explains geographic profiling theories and principles, and includes an extensive review of the literature in the areas of criminal profiling, forensic behavioral science, serial violent crime, environmental criminology, and the geography of crime. Geographic Profiling provides many tables and figures, including color plates, and a glossary, as well as case descriptions of some of the most notorious serial killers in the history of American justice, from Albert DeSalvo and David Berkowitz to Aileen Wuornos and Jeffrey Dahmer.

Click Here For Full Details

UK Visitors Click Here

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www.all-about-forensic-psychology.com

A Free & Comprehensive Guide to The World of Forensic Psychology

Forensic Psychology Forum

Just to let you know that the Forensic Psychology Forum is up and running again. It was originally launched at the end of last year but was quickly overrun with SPAM and I had to suspend the right for users to post - which rather defeated the object of the forum.

I'm pleased to announce, however, that registered users can now post again and that I have put a number of measures in place to deal with the problem of SPAM. I have deleted all Spam related users from the system and no newly registered members can post until I have checked and personally activated their account.

Another way to ensure the integrity of the forum is to have plenty of board moderators, who can delete any Spam or inappropriate posts as soon as they appear. If you would like to be a moderator on the forum, just let me know, it really just involves deleting any SPAM posts you come across when visiting the forum; and it's something extra to put down on your resume/CV.

There are a number of topic categories on the forum e.g. criminal profiling, psychopathy, forensic assessment, forensic psychology careers, forensic science etc; but please feel free to suggest any new topic areas.

I'll be promoting the forum over the next few days, so hopefully it won't be too long before we have an active and vibrant online community.

Click Here to visit the Forensic Psychology Forum, and don't forget to register if you haven't already done so.

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www.all-about-forensic-psychology.com

A Free & Comprehensive Guide to The World of Forensic Psychology