3. The Investigative Psychology Approach

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about the investigative psychology approach, focusing in particular on: (i) defining forensic psychology, as per Canter & Youngs (2009); (ii) the role that investigative psychology plays in the events after uncovering a crime scene, including predicting a criminal’s next move; (iii) the involvement of investigative psychology in the information, inference and action portions of crime scene investigation; (iv) the ‘railway rapists’ case, which was key in establishing investigative psychology as a part of the criminal investigation process.

Course

In this course, Professor Ciarán O’Keeffe (Buckinghamshire New University) explores offender profiling. In the first lecture, we think about the top down and bottom up approaches to profiling, and review a range of definitions of offender profiling. In the second lecture, we think about the FBI’s organised and disorganised crime scene and criminal typologies. Next, we think about the investigative psychology approach as an alternative to the ‘FBI approach’. In the fourth and final lecture, we think about geographic profiling and its origins in John Snow’s ‘cholera map’ of London.

Lecturer

Professor Ciarán O’Keeffe is associate professor of education and research and head of the School of Human and Social Sciences at Buckinghamshire New University. Professor O’Keeffe’s research interests include investigative psychology and parapsychology, and has made numerous television and radio appearances alongside an array of celebrities. Some of Professor O’Keeffe’s recent publications include 'Things That Go Bump In The Literature: An Environmental Appraisal of 'Haunted Houses'' (2020) and 'Restorative Justice and Recidivism: Investigating the impact of victim-preference for level of engagement' (2014).