Preview

Mind Hunter

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1650 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mind Hunter
David McGuire
Criminal Investigation 4/3/2013

THE MIND HUNTER BOOK REPORT

In the book Mind Hunter, author, John Douglas introduces how the FBI provides learning, education and techniques throughout Local, State and Federal police. John Douglas was a former FBI agent from the FBI at Quantico, VA. Douglas tells about how he and a team of FBI officers formed the Investigative Support Unit. Douglas explains the steps and techniques used in profiling an offender, by putting himself inside the mind of a killer and victim. Douglas has interviews with famous serial killers in prison. Douglas learned a lot about what was going on inside the killer’s mind, with clues he left at a crime scene. In the book Douglas describes serial killer’s main goals are hunting and killing. They want the feeling of being and wanting to have complete control over their victims. Douglas dissects each crime scene, reliving it in his mind, creating profiles and predicts their next moves. Douglas has met and interviewed dozens of serial killers to understand their motives. Manipulation, domination and control.
John Douglas stated “criminal or offender profiling, is a law enforcement investigation technique that attempts to determine the type of person who may have committed the crime based upon an individual’s behavior at the crime scene or at multiple crime scenes.” It is based on that humans are creatures of habit and will follow a certain behavior. Profilers rely on the fact that normal human behavior; characteristics and patterns remain the same, regardless of the act. A profile is a list of likely traits that the individual who committed the crime possesses. The purpose of the profile, like all other investigative tools, is to narrow the search down for police to a certain set of people that they can match to evidence.
When John Douglas interviewed Richard Speck he used a very good investigative technique. Douglas began to stoop down to the killer’s level.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The mindset of Serial Killers as depicted in Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Murder and killing is in all likelihood a topic many people may not like discussing; as it is a concern that can make almost anyone uncomfortable and uneasy. On the other hand, I’ve always had an itch for forensics and learning more about the minds of serial killers that have done damage to innocent people. The podcast, The Bad Show, on radiolab made me curious to learn more and write about serial killers and murder and why essentially, we, as people think about evil thoughts and killing. Serial killing has had its place in the eyes of the public where private, hidden desires and public fantasies cross together to people who can be known as sociopaths.…

    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In order to carry out an act one must have a motive. Serial killers are prime examples of someone who finds not only motivation to kill, but a thrill from it. The Zodiac Killer was never caught, so finding out what drove him to kill was a challenge. In one of the first letters he sent he stated, “I like killing people because killing is the most dangerous game in the world” (Zodiac).…

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Criminal profiling can aide in narrowing down the subject pool in an investigation, but it does not provide enough accuracy to conclude the exact perpetrator. It is a fairly new, and evolving practice that still needs to be adjusted in order to truly be useful in catching criminals, especially serial killers. Serial murder committed by women is largely unaccounted for because it is rare, which is why there is only one classification rubric that is nearly twenty years old. (Farrell et al., 2013; 268, 269, 273). A study conducted using many known cases of women serial killers concluded that most of the cases did not fit the profile created by Kelleher & Kelleher because it is so outdated (Farrell et al., 2013; 283-284). Criminal profiling has the potential to be a useful tool in criminal investigations, however, more effort needs to be allocated towards improving and maintaining the practice to accommodate the ever changing criminal…

    • 1767 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Offender profiling is a method of identifying the perpetrator of a crime based on an analysis of the nature of the offense and the manner in which it was committed. Various aspects of the criminal's personality makeup are determined from his or her choices before, during, and after the crime. This information is combined with other relevant details and physical evidence, and then compared with the characteristics of known personality types and mental abnormalities to develop a practical working description of the offender.…

    • 2777 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Criminal Minds

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The main issue this episode addresses is the false attempts at trying to construct a profile for a serial killer that suddenly disappears and reappears eighteen years later. In Myths and Realities, it’s stated that profiling hasn’t been found useful when trying to catch a serial killer. The show Criminal Minds is all about the Behavioral Analysis Unit trying to find a killer’s modus operandi. In episode fifteen the Keystone killer apparently switches up his MO and his victim’s age are getting older, yet, Elle Greenaway, clearly states that victimology rarely changes with unsubs. Derek Morgan also has a different…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Why Serial Killers Kill

    • 177 Words
    • 1 Page

    Ever wondered what happens inside of à serial killers head. It is unknown why but the mind of these people tell them to kill others. You may just think that they have mental problems or are not smart to solve their problems but most serial killers have an IQ higher than the average person. The reasons serial killers kill are fear of rejection, power and à perfection. À serial killer will avoid developing à painful relationship with his objects of desire and is terrified of being abandoned, humiliated or often exposed. They have belief that the power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill you are always à subject to those who can. Serial killers kill because they are addicted to…

    • 177 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Psychological profiling is becoming more and more popular with police departments all over the United States as an additional tool to help solve some of the most serious and most heinous crimes. Even though profiling is considered an art and not a science, when profilers are given the correct information and are given access to crime scenes they can collaborate with each other and come up with a very good profile of the person who committed the crime at hand. In the Baton Rouge Serial Killer case the, the local officers did not put in their reports that witness reports identified a black man by the victims home, and what they showed the FBI profilers were reports describing a white male (Ramsland, n.d.). Profiling represents a tool to aid the police. Profilers are only as good as the information that they receive from the agencies they are helping. Profiling is not a magical guessing game being played and if they get it right then they get a prize which will be a killer. It is a serious business and anyone who is able to be a profiler has a gift because it is not easy to look at some if the crime scenes that are out there and remain objective enough to put together a picture of…

    • 1646 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Serial killers have a propensity to act and think a certain way due to environmental stressors. Through a combination of other factors such as self-esteem and self-control coupled with social skill issues, the person retreats into serial killer mode. The killer, at that point, believes that they can correct their problems through killing. (Holmes and DeBurger 1998) These serial killers get a thrill out of murdering people. Once they do it they crave that excitement to do it all over again. They are not thinking of who they are hurting and how they are affecting the families of these victims. Serial killers, essentially allay their self-esteem and self-control issues through violent acts against others. (Guillen, Tomas Serial Killer…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Criminal profiling is fundamentally created within a compilation of intuitions and common sense. There are a number of cases where the creation and use of a profile; combined with analytical and prosecutorial fervour, disrupted the investigation and on occasion lead to a grave breakdown of justice.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Most serial killers start out by killing animals before moving on to sometimes torturing and eventually killing actual human beings. The causes of psychopathology in an individual is still unknown. Trying to understand how a killer’s mind works goes back hundreds…

    • 1938 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    References: Bartol, C. R., & Bartol A. M. (2012). Current perspectives in forensic psychology and criminal behavior. Edition 3. Retrieved from http://books.google.kz/books?id=Q2zEKbm2h_gC&pg=PA19&dq=criminal+profiling+useless&hl=ru&sa=X&ei=MYSfUqr9OoKe4wSF8oCgBg&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=criminal%20profiling%20useless&f=false…

    • 1317 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Criminal profiling is a general term that describes any process of inferring distinctive personality characteristics of individuals responsible for committing criminal acts from physical and/or behavioral evidence. The FBI defines criminal investigative analysis as an investigative process that identifies the major personality and behavioral characteristics of the offender based on the crimes he or she has committed. Profiles are known to work best when the offender displays obvious psychopathology, such as sadistic torture, postmortem mutilation or pedophilia. A profile can offer helpful information that includes the offender’s general age range, racial identity, ideas about the modus operandi, estimates about living situation, education level, travel patterns, the possibility of a criminal or psychiatric record, and probable psychological traits. When criminal profilers examine materials in the trial phase of a case, they are…

    • 1828 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Criminal Minds Psychology

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Criminal Minds is a fictional show with components that seem all too possible in real life situations. The profilers don’t just use evidence to find the criminal, but use psychology, behavior profiling, and statistics to determine not only why the criminal does what he/she does but also their personality…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    criminal minds

    • 947 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The criminals in these programs are social deviant and the where labeled by the police organization as deviant based on the crimes they committed. The FBI behavioral analysis unit who work hand in hand with the police, labels the suspects as not the everyday criminal. The criminals were extremely dangerous and usually suffering from behavioral disorders or mental illness. They are not normal criminals who committed their crimes because of survival or to earn money. These criminals usually commit their crimes due to passion, for fun or for some superstitious belief. The FBI unit labels these criminals as the most deviant of all criminals; they are extremely dangerous and will continue to commit their crimes until they are caught. It is therefore necessary for the FBI unit to build a personality profile of the criminal in order to known which is the next victim and where will be the next crime.…

    • 947 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays