I've read most of Douglas, Ressler, Hazelwood, and The Burgess' collaborations.(Crime Classification Manual 1st and 2nd edition
is something I cut my analytical teeth on in a manner of speakin.)But, (To be honest) I find the F.B.I. method/Inductive Methods of reasoning to be fairly useless for the most part,..and think the method(s) only gained popularity by virtue of Hollywood. (in
particular Silence of The Lambs film. It put John Douglas on
the map, and inspired a more pronounced interest in the "art" of
criminal profiling. Sorry Charlie-Boy, but I will NOT say science
because it is NOT science. It is an art-form loosely based upon
scientific principles when applied PROPERLY.)David Canter (British Profiler)'s 5-factor model is a bit more useful,
but ultimately fails too, because it relies too heavily on induction and statistics gathering which is then applied to a profile.( rather than deductions made after examining facts of a crime as if it were/is it's own Unique Universe of events .)Brent Turvey (et al.) Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis shows promise. (I've just finished the 3rd edition. Can't afford the others at the moment.) His/Their Ideo-deductive approach/Deductive Methods, and reliance upon SCIENCE, rather than statistically generated psychological probabilities is much more reliable I think. (but also limited in scope, often Due to its being constantly misapplied to the wrong kind of cases though, moreso
than by any fault of Dear Dr. Turvey/et al. heh...)Many are under the misconception that Profiling is used to solve Crime.When in reality it's main use is generally in narrowing down suspect pools, and/or making (to quote from Turvey): a collection of inferences about the qualities and characteristics of an individual responsible for the commission of a crime, or series of crimes."
(end quote. pg.17 chpt. 2 in 3rd edition.)
Within the profiling community, half the time you can notice the same Ideological Warfare one might anticipate from rivaling Church Denominations. And that is a sad reality, because I think if one were to apply knowledge in ALL of the Methods Collectively (depending on the individual crime itself and it's personal analytic-needs) profiling would be MUCH more effective. But, for now? It's little more than a parlor
trick/pseudo-science veiled as Investigative Methodology that attracts
people by virtue of it's hollywood successes, moreso than by virtue
of the crimes it has solved.
