Profiling in Policy and Practice

by David Canter (Editor)

Psychological contributions to the investigation and prosecution of crime raise many important questions; about the ethical implications for such interventions, the appropriate ways in which they can be incorporated into law enforcement activities, their scientific validity and their legal acceptability. Drawing on the use of psychology in a range of actual criminal cases, the present volume answers these crucial questions about the implications of 'profiling' for policy and practice.. "The volume is essential reading for anyone who has a professional involvement in the use of psychological expertise in the investigative and legal processes. Students and researchers will find it to be a valuable reference source to a range of material not normally available. It will be of interest to everyone concerned with the rapidly growing utilisation of psychology by detectives and the courts.

261 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Professor of Psychology, university of Huddersfield.

David Victor Canter (born 5 January 1944) is a psychologist. He began his career as an architectural psychologist studying the interactions between people and buildings, publishing and providing consultancy on the designs of offices, schools, prisons, housing and other building forms as well as exploring how people made sense of the large scale environment, notably cities. He set up the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 1980. His work in architecture led to studies of human reactions in fires and other emergencies. He pioneered Investigative Psychology in Britain. He helped police in 1985 on the Railway Rapist case. He was the Professor of Psychology at the University of Surrey for ten years, where he developed Investigative Psychology described in detail in Investigative Psychology: Offender Profiling and the Analysis of Criminal Action and a course curriculum. He was Director of the Centre For Investigative Psychology which is based at the University of Liverpool. Since 2009 he has been at the University of Huddersfield. At Liverpool University Canter developed the MSc programme in Investigative Psychology which he directed until 2007. He no longer directs this programme which has consequently changed to reflect the wider arena of Forensic Psychology and a more balanced view of the field. He is the founder and director of the International Academy for Investigative Psychology, a professional academy for researchers seeking to apply social science to investigative and legal processes.