Profile of a Criminal Mind
by Brian Innes

English
256 pages
Silverdale Books
ISBN: 1-85605-791-7

First line: The criminal has been an unwelcome element of society since time immemorial, and the attempt to penetrate his or her mind, to discover whether he or she differs significantly from the person who is considered an honest citizen – and if so, to what degree – has preoccupied people for centuries.

Back cover blurb:
Profile of a Criminal Mind is a comprehensive exploration of criminal profiling. Beginning with the early suppositions of 19th century physicians Cesare Lombrosco and Albert Bertillon, the author examines the work of criminologists such as Robert Ressler at the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit and David Canter and Paul Britton in Britain, before coming right up to date with recent developments in handwriting analysis and the ‘criminal geographic targeting’ (CGT) computer system.

This fascinating and authoritative study examines some of the major cases of the 20th century, including Ted Bundy, Andrei Chikatilo (the ‘Rostov Ripper’), Jeffrey Dahmer, Albert DeSalvo, Peter Sutcliffe (the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’), Ted Kaczynski (the ‘Unabomber’), Edmund Kemper and George Metetsky.

Thoughts: This book has been in my shelf, unread, since I got it in the annual book sale 2006. I decided to read it now because I thought I’d put it on my list for the TBR-challenge, but when I’d finished it, I discovered that I was mistaken in that. Oh well, no harm done. I got to strike one more book off my TBR-list, official or unofficial, and that’s always something.

More importantly was the fact that it was a good book. I am extremely fascinated by true crime and like to read about it, but sometimes the books are a little too sensationalist for my tastes, or I end up reading one that just restates the facts of half a dozen others I’ve read on the same topic. Not so this one. It brings a new perspective, and while it does touch on some common cases, it doesn’t feel like repetitiveness at any point. In fact, a lot of the times the author assumes that one is already familiar with the cases. There are some cases he mentions in passing more than once, but never elaborates on. It’s a little frustrating at times, because I don’t actually remember much about those cases at present, but in the end I quite like that approach. I have a bunch of other books I could look them up in, if I really feel the need to refresh my memory.

I also really like the layout. It’s divided into clear-cut chapters that deal with one subject or another, and along with the main text, there are bunches of photos and illustrations, as well as “fact boxes”, which I thought were a nice touch.

It’s always difficult, I find, to rate a non-fictional work and I rarely give out higher grades to them, but this time I’m going to have to go with a B. One of the more interesting and well-executed books I have read on this topic in quite some time. Bravo, Mr. Innes!