New York Times bestselling author Jillian Lauren's personal, shocking account of confronting serial killer Samuel Little - and the untold stories of his victims.

Jillian Lauren set out to research a serial killer for a novel. Instead, she put one at the centre of her life.

Months of exchanging letters with Samuel Little in prison landed her a face-to-face meeting - and the trust of a monster. In the hours of harrowing interviews that followed, Little confessed to the murders of ninety-three women, making him America's most proli fic serial killer. As the investigations escalated, the disturbing relationship took its toll on Lauren, both psychologically and legally - but she couldn't stop.

Conversations with a psychopath, intertwined with intensely personal experience and the stories of those killed told for the first time, result in an unforgettable true crime account. Behold the Monster is a journey into a mind and murderer that shocked the world, but one that ultimately lifts the lives of the victims with such grace that we cannot look away.

This book aims to demonstrate how forensic psychology contributes to police investigations, providing practical information about the type of reports provided by psychologists and behavioural advisors, and set within a broader theoretical context. It asks the question 'What do practitioners actually do when they provide advice for the police and the courts and how do they do it?' The contributors to the book are all experts in the field of offender profiling and behavioural investigative advice. The chapters provide valuable insights into particular case details, the ethical and legal consequences of advice, coverage of the relevant theoretical context, explanations for conclusions drawn, practical difficulties in preparing reports, potential pitfalls, and an account of how cases are resolved.

Most of us only half-listen to the public service announcements about safety in the home. We lock our doors at night, but do little else to change habits that may make us the next victims of the dangerous individuals who are always on the watch for their next opportunity. This updated paperback edition takes readers through the mindset of predatory criminals - their motives, various plans of attack, and way of thinking - and then teaches simple lifestyle techniques that will help reduce the risk of becoming victimized. Featuring a new chapter on how the Internet and social media has radically changed how some predators operate, criminal behavior specialists Greg Cooper and Mike King provide expert analysis based on real-life cases, in addition to moving insights from victims and criminals themselves. The authors make the point that the people who commit these crimes aren't much different from the predators of the wild, preying on the weak and unsuspecting. What makes these individuals more dangerous than their instinctive wildlife counterparts, however, is that they consciously choose to inflict their will on the more vulnerable members of their own species. To protect our loved ones and ourselves requires that we truly educate ourselves about the predators who live in our society and then take appropriate action. This excellent, in-depth study will help readers lead safer lives.

This book predominantly explores the psychic histories of patients who display their transgenerational conflicts/trauma through forensic acts. It establishes the need to consider the details of patient history in understanding the patient within both the therapeutic encounter and the treatment team milieu. There are many themes of contemporary interest including gang murders, sibling jealousy, fatal eating disorder, personality disorder, and the effects of exclusion and marginalization within group and community dynamics and the global prevalence of mass murder. Peter Aylward describes the collapse into dyadic thinking and enactment that prevails when the third perspective, classically represented by the father within the Oedipal dynamic, is excluded or absent. Providing detailed case studies he shows how seemingly meaningless explosions of violence or perversion are attempts to master early experiences of trauma and/or exclusion, often passed down unconsciously through the generations. Using the theories of Matte Blanco and notions of the "critical date" the chapters give unique insight into the timing and triggers of crimes, however apparently random.The final chapter, on the Dunblane Massacre, illuminates the thinking in previous chapters about the crucial importance of triangulating to militate against exclusion/marginalization whose humiliating feelings can be the bedrock of not only the paedophilic and anorexic but more strikingly the murderous impulse. The significant implications for the penal, health and particularly the education system are discussed with recommendations suggested. This is endorsed in the foreword by Lord Alderdice who writes that "it is in the interests of communities to act through informed understanding and I very much hope that his (Aylward s) lead is followed ."

This is the first comprehensive guide to the range of research methods available to applied psychologists. Ideally suited to students and researchers alike, and covering both quantitative and qualitative techniques, the book takes readers on a journey from research design to final reporting. The book is divided into four sections, with chapters written by leading international researchers working in a range of applied settings: Getting Started Data Collection Data Analysis Research Dissemination With coverage of sampling and ethical issues, and chapters on everything from experimental and quasi-experimental designs to longitudinal data collection and focus groups, the book provides a concise overview not only of the options available for applied research, but also of how to make sense of the data produced. It includes chapters on organizational interventions and the use of digital technologies, and concludes with chapters on how to publish your research, whether it's a thesis, journal article or organisational report. This is a must-have book for anyone conducting psychological research in an applied setting.

The latest volume in the Forensic Psychotherapy Series discusses one of the most controversial, taboo, and misunderstood subjects in the psychoanalytic arena today -- pedophilia. A variety of treatments and therapies, including brain surgery, electric shock treatment and incarceration, have not succeeded in treating this condition. In this volume, a range of eminent and expert professionals go further: into the mind of the pedophile, using dream interpretation, free association, fantasies and memories, in a bid to comprehend the exact nature; the how, when and why, of pedophilia.Contributors include Wilfred Abse, William Greer, Daniel P. Juda, Brett Kahr, Loretta R. Loeb, C.W. Socarides, Vamik D. Volkan

The book describes the author's extensive experience of working as an expert witness in family courts. Although he acts as a psychiatrist trying to see what is in the child's best interests in often very complex situations, his core identity as a psychoanalyst is fundamental to his approach. The work entails looking at the inner worlds of children and parents, as well as whole family functioning, including aspects of the wider professional network as well as the court processes. The book gives clinical examples of how the author uses his approach.Being a psychoanalyst offers a particular clinical stance, where unconscious motives, impulses and emotions have to be faced. Tackling negative attitudes and behaviour, as well as promoting more positive aspects of functioning, based on a psychoanalytical approach, can help the more intractable families to change. A psychoanalytical approach can also help to inform decision-making in the courts. It can offer a space for calm thinking in an otherwise crisis-led field. But it means having to find a clear and communicable language for complex states of mind, a far from easy task, but one which may be worthwhile if psychoanalysis is to survive.The book provides detailed guidance for assessing families for the courts, as well giving many detailed clinical examples to illustrate points made. Topics covered include guidance for experts, assessment of families, contact issues, fostering, adoption and rehabilitation issues.

Beyond Empiricism expands the discourse on theories of criminal behavior. It considers institutional, social, and individual issues related to criminal behavior, while individually each raises questions about the adequacy of current theoretical claims. The topics have significant implications both for policy and research in criminology.

Per-Olof Wikstrom introduces a cross-level action theory of crime. He suggests that better understanding of causal mechanisms can lead to a situational theory of action based on perception of alternatives and the process of choice. David Wolcott and Steven Schlossman provide new perspectives on the issues of racial disparity and the incarceration of adolescents in adult prisons. These authors highlight gaps in our understanding of early twentieth-century juvenile justice and negate some popular claims about recent changes in the criminal law. Peter Grabosky spotlights privatization policies in the criminal justice system, suggesting a framework for analyzing the balance of advantage resulting from three basic forms of institutional relationships in policing. Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld discuss why institutional analysis has been seriously underdeveloped in etiological analyses of crime. Jordan Pederson and Matthew Shane scrutinize the concept of aggression. Their descriptions of aggressive behavior among non-human animals provide a fascinating backdrop for understanding human actions. Joan McCord emphasizes the intentionality of crimes as she argues that to understand what causes crime, one must have a theory about what it means to act intentionally. After critically appraising prior theories, McCord introduces and defends a new theory of motivation based on a post-empiricist theory of language.

This latest volume in the distinguished Advances in Criminological Theory series continues to add to the theoretical underpinnings of the field, and will be important to all collections of social science research on criminology.

This multi-disciplinary text lies in the general areas of forensic psychiatry, sociology, jurisprudence, criminal law and criminology. It questions traditional assumptions about illness and particularly mental disorder and deals with the controversial notion that they are not at least in part the fault of the sufferer. It examines how the law can take into account such culpable notions of mental disorder in determining criminal responsibility (if a person culpably causes a condition e.g. intoxication s/he cannot rely on that condition as the basis of a defence at trial; hence the law affords different levels of justification/excuse/mitigation to the crimes of those who have got themselves drunk and those who are drunk due to being slipped a mickey). This culpability for the defence-causing condition (or responsibility for level of criminal responsibility) is called meta-responsibility. illness models relate to meta-responsibility; the insanity defence and other mental condition defences; the relationship of clinical issues such as medication non-compliance and insight to meta-responsibility (with reference to critical psychiatric and social constructivist models of mental disorder which cast it not as an affliction but as a sometimes positive experience which may be under control of the sufferer); and the counterfactual notion that considers how the possible voluntary origins of mental disorder would benefit the criminal and non-criminal mentally disordered. jurors, examining the effect of a meta-responsibility insanity test (one which allows jurors to reflect their consideration of the defendant's culpability for their disorder in the jurors' verdict). The test made no difference to the number of insanity verdicts rendered (in comparison to a normal insanity test); however, the recommended length of detention in hospital for insanity acquittees significantly diminished using the new test. This suggests that the post-trial disposal to hospital, which has long been pointed as pseudo-therapeutic punishment by commentators (insanity acquittees are likely to spend twice as long in hospital than if they had simply pled guilty and gone to jail) is in part revenge by society and the criminal justice system for beating the rap using a condition which they deem to be at least partly the defendant's fault.

This thought-provoking new collection - the fourth volume in the Forensic Psychotherapy Monograph Series - investigates the inherent difficulties in risk assessment. We have all read the lurid headlines when things go wrong but what is it like for the professional who has to make such vital decisions? Ronald Doctor has assembled an impressive group of clinicians who specialise in various aspects of forensic psychiatry and psychotherapy to present their experiences and theories on this formidable subject. The book begins with a general overview of current psychodynamic approaches and covers various mental health settings, including medium- and high-security units, general medical hospitals and psychiatric wards. This collection will prove to be an indispensable guide to any healthcare professional and a fascinating insight for all into this highly-pressured environment.

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the relationship between psychology, moral reasoning theory and offending behaviour. It sets out the theory and research which has been carried out in the field, and examines the ways in which this knowledge has been used in practice to inform treatment programmes for offenders. This book pays particular attention to Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning, providing a link between this theory and developmental psychology, along with a review of more recent critiques of this theory and an analysis of the difficulties of accurately assessing moral reasoning. The book goes on to assess moral reasoning as an explanation of offending behaviour, looking at how moral reasoning interacts with child rearing and family factors, social factors and social cognition. Offending is therefore presented as a complex phenomenon caused by an interaction of variables that are internal and external to the individual. The book concludes with a consideration of how knowledge and research in the area of moral reasoning and offending has been used in practice to inform treatment programmes for offenders, looking at a variety of different settings (prison, residential settings, and in the community).

Using recent research and case studies, this book offers an evidence-based insight into the embezzler's mindset as they commit crimes that are costing nations, organisations and individuals increasingly more each year. This mindset is described in detail as the embezzler develops their motivation to steal from their employer, finds a method of stealing, assesses the risks, executes the theft, and then determines whether to continue to steal. The organisational landscape of security capabilities, culture and financial circumstances provide the environment that this mindset operates within. The embezzler's approach to the crime is broken down into four stages: Pre-Existing Vulnerabilities, Induction to First Theft, Ongoing Theft and Detection to Resolution. The author recommends strategies based on the embezzler's mindset for organisations to enhance their ability to protect themselves from such inside threats that attack their reputation, productivity, morale and, in the worst cases, financial viability.

What does a criminological psychologist actually do? Most people picture a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, helping the police to solve crimes, but the reality is far more interesting and complex. Psychology and Crime offers a fascinating introduction to criminological psychology, providing the reader with a comprehensive grounding in everything from cognitive forensics to police interviewing. Concise, informative and accessible, the book explores a range of theories to understand criminal behaviour, from the physiological to the social. It covers a range of contexts within the criminal justice system where psychology offers unique insights, including police investigation, the perspective of witnesses and victims, and courtroom proceedings. Thoroughly updated throughout to reflect developments in the field, and featuring new chapters covering cybercrime, terrorism and insights from neuroscience, this edition also includes a student-friendly 'Apply your learning' feature and case studies to bring the research to life. Accessibly written for all levels, and with concise coverage of both classic and contemporary psychological theory, this is the ideal book for anyone studying criminal or forensic psychology.

This book explores sexual crime and intellectual functioning. Drawing on expertise from clinical practice and applied research, the volume begins with an exploration of the theoretical and historical background to the interest in links between sexual offending and intellectual functioning. The authors then move on to discuss assessment of intellectual functioning in prison, interventions for low intellectual functioning, autistic spectrum and personality disorder. This book offers a rare insight into the phenomenon of high IQ and sexual offending, a much neglected aspect of the sexual crime literature, and includes novel research that unpacks this link. It further offers an extraordinary insight into the experiences of a person of superior IQ in the criminal justice system for a sexual offence. The book is relevant not only to psychologists, criminologists, social workers and students, but also to practitioners, researchers and the general public with an interest in learning about sexual offending and intellectual functioning.

This book is intended for medical and mental health clinicians faced with the challenge of evaluating adolescents and adults in the legal context who may have a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Luminaries in their respective fields, the contributors to this book offer a range of expertise and perspectives regarding the forensic investigation of FASD: medical, psychological, psychiatric, criminal defense, prosecution, and the judiciary. The primary goal of the book is to provide medical and mental health clinicians with practical procedures that can be used in a variety of forensic and clinical settings. It includes protocols that have been used successfully in legal matters ranging from rights waiver and competency to capital murder and sexual offending. It not only provides detailed guidelines for interviewing birth mothers about the delicate topic of substance use during pregnancy but also introduces a methodology that can be used in the absence of exposure confirmation to arrive at a sound diagnostic conclusion through the process of differential diagnosis. Taken as a whole, the methodological procedures described by the contributors to the book serve as 'best practices' for comprehensive forensic mental health evaluation of potential FASD in juveniles and adult defendants as well as in victims.

Memories are the ultimate foundation of testimony in legal settings ranging from criminal trials to divorce mediations and custody hearings. Yet the last decade has seen mounting evidence of various ways in which the accuracy of memories can be distorted on the one hand and enhanced on the other. This book offers a long-awaited comprehensive and balanced overview of what we now understand about children's and adults' eyewitness capabilities--and of the important practical and theoretical implications of this new understanding. The authors, leading clinicians and behavioral scientists with diverse training experiences and points of view, provide insight into the social, cognitive, developmental, and legal factors that affect the accuracy and quality of information obtained in forensic interviews. Armed with the knowledge these chapters convey, practitioners in psychology, psychiatry, social work, criminology, law, and other relevant fields will be better informed about the strengths and limitations of witnesses' accounts; researchers will be better poised to design powerful new studies. Memory and Suggestibility in the Forensic Interview will be a crucial resource for anyone involved in elucidating, interpreting, and reporting the memories of others.

This volume consists of up-to-date review articles on topics relevant to psychology and law, and will be of current interest to the field. These topics are currently attracting a great deal of research and public policy attention in the U.S. and elsewhere and will be relevant to researchers, clinical practitioners, and policy makers. Topics include: attitudes toward police (Cole et al.), accuracy of memory for child sexual abuse (Goldfarb et al.), the use of interpreters in investigations (Goodman-Delahunty et al.), adjustment of former prisoners post-exoneration (Kirshenbaum et al.), psychological implications for gun policy (Pirelli et al.), ability to match people with images from ID cards and video (Rumschik et al.), judicial instructions on eyewitness evidence (Skalon et al.), social science of the death penalty (West et al.), and informant testimony (Wetmore et al.).

Offender profiling is a set of techniques used to solve crimes by identifying patterns of criminal activity and behavior. Over the past few years there has been massively increased interest in the subject, but it has needed an accessible introduction and overview. Offender Profiling covers both theory and practice, providing a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of the various approaches used. Criminal behavior and its motivation is analyzed and explored, and an emphasis throughout the book is upon the validity of research used in offender profiling, and its potential usefulness in the detection of crime - not only rape and murder but other crimes as well.

Stop abuse before it starts Identifying Child Molesters: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse by Recognizing the Patterns of the Offenders will teach you to better protect children from potential child sexual molesters long before any abuse can actually occur. Here you'll learn to recognize and understand the seemingly invisible steps that typically precede child sexual abuse. These stories of molesters, their families, and their victims, will enable you to more accurately see through a potential molester's charming demeanor and better protect the children in your life. Understanding the behavior that molesters often exhibit when trying to obtain access to children is essential to protecting children from their advances. By becoming familiar with this terrain you will find the courage and strength to decide what must be done, and the skills to follow through with the necessary actions. Such responses will appropriately curtail an offender's access to children and subsequent opportunities to molest.Identifying Child Molesters will teach you: how to recognize those who might molest how molesters typically 'charm'adults how societal attitudes help to foster child sexual abuse what to do when encountering a potential molester what physical and emotional damage molestation can cause to victims how to graciously avoid potentially dangerous situationsIdentifying Child Molesters: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse by Recognizing the Patterns of the Offenders clearly spells out the techniques that child sexual molesters so successfully use to charm adults into giving them access to children. When these strategies are seen and understood, adults can take much more direct responsibility for preventing child sexual abuse than was previously possible.Anyone who lives or works with children needs to own this book. The information you'll encounter in Identifying Child Molesters might startle you, but it might also help you save the life of a child

This book explores the growing understanding and evidence base for the role of trauma in sexual offending. It represents a paradigm shift, in which trauma is becoming an important risk factor to be considered in the treatment of individuals convicted of sexual crime. The authors consider the theoretical and historical explanations and understandings of sexual offending and its relationship with early trauma, paving the way for a volume which considers client's treatment needs through a new, trauma-informed lens. The experiences and challenges of specific groups are also explored, including young people and women. Readable, yet firmly anchored in a sound evidence base, this book is relevant to psychologists, therapists, criminologists, psychiatrists, mental health nurses, social workers, students, and to practitioners and the general public with an interest in learning more about the topic.

Offender profiling has been developing slowly as a possible investigative tool since 1841 and the publication of Edgar Allen Poe's The Murder in the Rue Morgue. In this book, detective C. Auguste Dupin demonstrates the ability to follow the thought patterns of a companion while they stroll through Paris for 15 minutes without speaking a word. Today profiling is an important investigative tool. Nevertheless, it often represents a less than educated attempt to provide law enforcement agencies with detailed information about the behavior of an unknown individual who has committed a crime.

Criminal Psychology and Forensic Technology: A Collaborative Approach to Effective Profiling introduces alternative approaches to improving the way crimes are investigated and offender profiles are generated. It shows forensic evidence experts how to work with profilers to combine discrete data into a more meaningful picture. The contributors address both their own specialty, such as anthropology, and then demonstrate how working in conjunction with criminal psychologists can provide more effective offender profiles.

This book is unique in that it provides you with an array of articles that fuse aspects of criminal psychology and several forensic science methods in a collaborative effort to improve profiling. Written in a format that is simple and straightforward, it utilizes actual case studies to show how specific procedures relate to police investigations.

The only book on the market that shows a team approach to criminal profiling, Criminal Psychology and Forensic Technology: A Collaborative Approach to Effective Profiling is a reference perfect for students interested in learning criminal profiling techniques and professionals wishing to sharpen their skills. Whatever your reason for choosing this book, it will enlighten you about alternative investigative tools.

Racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system is much debated and discussed, but until now, no single volume has covered the full expanse of the issue. In Bias in the Law, sixteen outstanding experts address the impact of racial bias in the full roster of criminal justice actors. They examine the role of legislators crafting criminal justice legislation, community enforcers, and police, as well as prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, judges, and jurors. Understanding when and why bias arises, as well as how it impacts defendants requires a clear understanding how each of these actors operate. Contributions touch on other crucial topics-racialized drug stigma, legal technology, and interventions-that are vital for understanding how the United States has reached this moment of stark racial disparity in incarceration. The result is an important entry into understanding the pervasiveness of racial bias, how such bias impacts legal outcomes, and why such impact matters. This is an issue that is as relevant today as it was fifty-or even one hundred fifty-years ago, and collection editors Joseph Avery and Joel Cooper provide a glimpse at how to proceed.

This innovative book examines radicalization from new psychological perspectives by examining the different typologies of radicalizing individuals, what makes individuals resilient against radicalization, and events that can trigger individuals to radicalize or to deradicalize. What is radicalization? Which psychological processes or events in a person's life play a role in radicalization? What determines whether a personal is resilient against radicalization, and is deradicalization something that we can achieve? This book goes beyond previous publications on this topic by identifying concrete key events in the process of radicalization, providing a useful theoretical framework that summarizes the current state-of-the-art research on radicalization and deradicalization. A model is presented in which a distinction is made between different levels of radicalization and deradicalization, with key underlying psychological needs discussed: the need for identity, justice, significance, and sensation. The authors also describe what makes people resilient against messages from "the outside world" when they belong to an extremist group and discuss observable events which may "trigger" a person to radicalize (further) or to deradicalize. Including real-world examples and clear guidelines for interventions aimed at prevention of radicalization and stimulation of deradicalization, this is essential reading for policy makers, researchers, practitioners, and students interested in this crucial societal issue.

'Profilers' and 'Profiling' are now widely discussed, often with almost mythical respect. This is the first volume to cut through the confusions and misunderstandings surrounding this topic to report on detailed, original, scientific research that examines the variations in criminal behaviour from which any 'profile' must be derived. The studies included examine both early approaches to the field and the future problems and potential for an Investigative Psychology approach of offender profiling. This book will be of great value to all those who have been waiting for a scientific, psychological basis to police investigations. It will be read with interest by those who want to get behind the rhetoric and controversy that surrounds 'offender profiling' and require an up to date account of current research and recent discoveries.