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Offender Profiling Theory, Research and Practice
Edited by J.L. Jackson and D.A. Bekerian
Chichester: John Wiley 1997

Reviewed by Katarina Fritzon


This book gives a good overview of many of the psychological and investigative issues relevant to the area of offender profiling and would be a useful introductory text to students and practitioners interested in this field. The opening chapter by Jackson and Bekarian provides a historical perspective on the development of offender profiling, from the FBI approach which still forms a template for many of the more recent profiling units which have been set up across the world. The following chapter by Boon explores the relationship between personality and offending; focussing on developmental and clinical personality disorders and how they might lead to particular acts of violence. In the third chapter there is an attempt to link personality theory with offence behaviour in relation to cases of extortion. However, more academically minded readers will be disappointed to find that the mechanism by which particular personality theories are chosen to explain certain offence behaviours is not made explicit; nor is any link made to the likely offender characteristics.

The applied element of profiling is the focus of Chapters four to six which discuss a variety of investigative issues and the role of profiling in the police context. This includes an evaluation of the contribution of profiling and forensic psychology to complement detectives' knowledge about serious low-incidence offences, such as rape and murder. Finally, chapters 7 to 11 focus on current research in the field. Chapter 7 describes four Dutch pilot studies, including a comparison of detective and profiler decision making processes, and a consumer evaluation of the usefulness of advice given on cases. Chapter 8 describes a statistical analysis of the physical characteristics of burglars and violent offenders. However, the results of this study, although interesting from a descriptive point of view, lack any substantive analytical content and the profiles generated are probably too general to be of practical value to police investigations. In contrast, the following three chapters focus on how specific details of offences can be used to make predictions about offender characteristics such as likely residence, and previous criminal history.

Overall, the theoretical element is somewhat weaker than the discussion of research and practice issues which are emphasised in the majority of the chapters, therefore this book does not resolve the problem of there being a lack of theory informing much of the current work of today's profiling experts. This is acknowledged by the editors in the final chapter as being an issue which must be addressed by future research in the area.



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