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The third edition of Profiling and Serial Crime illustrates the promise, purposes, and pitfalls of behavioral profiling in the investigation of serial crime, and provides a theoretical and practical foundation for students. Part one, on profiling, examines inductive and deductive reasoning, profiling methods (including geographic profiling), metacognition, expert evidence, and more. Part two examines serial crime in detail, including cyber-bullying, stalking, rape, murder, and arson. This edition has been thoroughly revised throughout to reflect the latest research in criminal profiling and serial crime. Specific updates include six all-new chapters, including serial harassment and cyber-bullying and the motivations of victim and offender, and two replacement chapters on serial rape and serial arson. Provides a theoretical and practical foundation for understanding the motivation and dynamics in a range of serial offensesAncillary online materials for instructors and students, including lecture slides, test bank and case studies Numerous case examples show the real world uses of behavioral profiling in investigations

The Psychology of Criminal and Antisocial Behavior: Victim and Offenders Perspectives is not just another formulaic book on forensic psychology.Rather, it opens up new areas of enquiry to busy practitioners and academics alike, exploring topics using a practical approach to social deviance that is underpinned by frontier research findings.

PurposeCase linkage theory and practice have received growing empirical support; however, they have yet to be examined fully within Australia. For sexual assault case linkage to be successful, it is assumed that a serial rapist will behave relatively consistently across offences yet distinctively compared to other offenders. The purpose of this paper is to test the underlying principles of case linkage, behavioural consistency and distinctiveness, as well as distinguishing accuracy.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 250 solved stranger rapes by 171 offenders (46 serial rapists, 125 one-off rapists) were taken from Queensland Police Service (QPS) crime records. All possible crime pairings were created and cross-crime similarity was assessed using Jaccard’s coefficient. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis was used to examine the ability to distinguish between linked and unlinked offence pairs.FindingsSerial linked pairs had the highest Jaccard’s coefficient (0.456), followed by non-serial unlinked (0.253) and finally, serial unlinked pairs (0.247). Within the ROC analysis, an area under the curve value was found of 0.913, indicating excellent distinguishing accuracy. Both the underlying principles of behavioural consistency and distinctiveness were supported through theoretical and practical methods. This paper provides the first analysis of serial rape case linkage in Australia, adding validity to this practice.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors wish to acknowledge the support and assistance from the QPS in undertaking this research. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the QPS and any errors of omission or commission are the responsibility of the authors.Practical implicationsThis paper provides validity to the practice of case linkage using a database within Australia. The results of this paper can be used to inform investigators of serial offender behaviours. The theories of offender consistency and distinctiveness are supported, highlighting the importance of behavioural evidence for practitioners. This paper provided a practical increase of the quantity and quality of offences uploaded on the Australian violent and sexual crimes database, which will assist further linkage efforts.Originality/valueThis paper is the first in Australia to examine consistency, distinctiveness and case linkage of serial stranger rape. Thus is contributes significantly not only to an increased understanding of serial rape and case linkage in Australia but also brings Australia closer to modern research practices in this field.

Serial Crime provides a theoretical and practical foundation for understanding the motivation and dynamics in a range of serial offenses . It successfully connects concepts and creates links to criminal behavior across crimes -murder, sexual assault, and arson- something no other book available does. The connection of serial behavior to profiling, the most useful tool in discovering behavior patterns, is new to the body of literature available and serves to examine the ideal manner in which profiling can be used in conjunction with psychology to positively affect criminal investigations. The book includes case examples that offer real-world uses of behavioral profiling in investigations, and highlight a variety of issues in understanding and investigating serial crime. The book's primary audience would include criminal profilers, fire investigators, universities offering forensic science/criminal justice programs, and forensic, police, criminal, and behavioral psychologists. The secondary audience would include attorneys and judges involved in criminal litigation, and forensic scientists and consultants (generalists).

The crime of stalking has existed for over 30years, though the behaviors are likely as old as human interaction. This chapter examines stalking as a construct and discusses the various behaviors involved in stalking. The first stalking laws are reviewed followed by a discussion on the incidence and prevalence of stalking. As stalking is a crime defined almost entirely by its effects on victims, the physical and psychological effects of stalking on victims will be discussed. Stalking is a relatively common crime, impacting about one in four to one in six individuals, but also occurs with some frequency among special populations, which will also be examined. Finally, the issue of serial stalking and recidivism will be discussed.

Cults are a universal phenomenon, with some estimates claiming hundreds of groups in various regions. Definitions of cult vary from those who adhere to religious beliefs other than your own through to groups who use psychological tactics to recruit, indoctrinate, and retain members. The “gold standard” for determining whether a group is a destructive cult was developed by Robert Lifton based on his studies of thought reform in the Third Reich, in Nazi Germany. These include milieu control, mystical manipulation, the demand for purity, confession, sacred science, loading the language, doctrine over person, and dispensing of existence. The more of these characteristics a group possesses, the more destructive they are. Given the often destructive nature of cults, the attraction to them will be discussed at the close of this chapter.