Criminal Forensics

On October 20, 1973, in San Francisco, a White couple strolling down Telegraph Hill was set upon and butchered by four young Black men. Thus began a reign of terror that lasted six months and left 15 Whites dead and the entire city in a state of panic. The perpetrators wanted nothing less than a race war.

Lie detection, offender profiling, jury selection, insanity in the law, predicting the risk of re-offending, the minds of serial killers, and many other topics that fill news and fiction are all aspects of the rapidly developing area of scientific psychology broadly known as forensic psychology. This fascinating Very Short Introduction discusses all the aspects of psychology that are relevant to the legal and criminal process as a whole.

A brilliant, no-nonsense profile of the criminal mind, newly updated in 2022 to include the latest research, effective methods for dealing with hardened criminals, and an urgent call to rethink criminal justice from expert witness Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D. “Utterly compelling reading, full of...

The plea of insanity in criminal cases can be traced back at least to the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, which dates from 1755-1759 BC. It is a complicated defence, and its origins in modern law lie with the 'M'Naghten Rules' of 1843. Clearly a plea of insanity in murder cases is of critical importance when the death penalty is still applied, and even today it may still be the difference between a life sentence in a high-security prison, or an indeterminate one in a secure psychiatric hospital.

'Whodunnit' doesn't matter so much, not to a forensic psychiatrist. We're more interested in the 'why'. In his 26 years in the field, Richard Taylor has worked on well over a hundred murder cases, with victims and perpetrators from all walks of life. In this fascinating memoir, Taylor draws on...

“Thought-provoking true-crime thriller…the book raises urgent questions of balancing public and private good that we’ll likely be dealing with as long as the title implies.”—Wall Street Journal A relentless detective and a civilian genealogist solve a haunting cold case—and launch a...

Brought to you by Penguin. WHAT MAKES A MURDERER? Unraveling the Dark Psychology Behind Britain’s Most Notorious Killers From Forensic Psychiatrist, Dr Duncan Harding SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION 2025 A young girl burns down the family home A man doesn’t remember...

Are you fascinated by criminology, forensics, and detective work? This you-are-there guide takes you deep into the world of crime, giving you a better understanding of the dark recesses of the criminal mind and how law enforcement officials investigate crime. You'll gain real-world knowledge of the reasons for and consequences of crime, the way society responds to it, and, most important, how crime can be prevented.

Through wonderfully descriptive writing, Simon details the work of fifteen detectives, three sergeants and a lieutenant charged with investigating dozens of Baltimore's 234 murders that year. Simon takes listeners inside the detectives' lives, describing the frustration of departmental red tape...

In this gripping – and sometimes terrifying – account, former South African Police Service (SAPS) head profiler Dr Gérard Labuschagne, successor to the legendary Micki Pistorius, recalls some of the 110 murder series and countless other bizarre crimes he analysed during his career. An expert on serial murder and rape cases, Labuschagne saw it all in his 14 and a half years in the SAPS.

Bloomsbury presents Buried by Graham Masterton, read by Lucianne McEvoy. In this part of Ireland, the past can never stay buried. In Blarney, Cork, an old millworker's cottage guards its secrets. In 1921, a mother, father and their two young children disappeared from this house. Now their...

Bloomsbury presents Blood Sisters by Graham Masterton, read by Lucianne McEvoy. Why would nuns need protection from a killer? In a nursing home on the outskirts of Cork, an elderly nun has been suffocated in her sleep. It looks like a mercy-killing – until another sister from the same convent...

Bloomsbury presents Living Death by Graham Masterton, read by Lucianne McEvoy. DS Katie Maguire and her team are stretched to their limit. A gang of dognappers is terrorising Cork. The city's drug trade is at an all-time high. Now a girl has gone missing – and all in the glare of the media...

How do you deal with those that break the law? If their aim is to evade you, how do you identify them? If their aim is to lie, how do you interview them? If they don't see their actions are wrong, how do you help them to successfully reform? Criminal psychology is the discipline which tackles these challenges head on. From the signals which give away when we’re lying to the psychological profiling of violent offenders, this exhaustive guide, written by the UK’s top experts, is the perfect introduction.

Bloomsbury presents Broken Angels by Graham Masterton, read by Lucianne McEvoy. 'One of this country's most exciting crime novelists.' Daily Mail Someone is brutally killing priests. Is it revenge? Or something more sinister? One cold spring morning in County Cork, two fishermen find a body...

EDGAR AWARD FINALIST “A true-crime masterpiece written by a cold-case-cracking master.”—John Douglas, New York Times bestselling co-author of Mindhunter “Barbara Rae-Venter isn’t just the genealogy expert who helped capture the Golden State Killer—she’s an unsung hero who has...

INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER! One of Amazon’s Best History Books of January Acclaimed journalist, podcaster, and true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson tells the true story of the scandalous murder investigation that became the inspiration for both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter...

Bloomsbury presents Taken for Dead by Graham Masterton, read by Lucianne McEvoy. 'One of this country's most exciting crime novelists.' Daily Mail Not even one of Ireland's best detectives can catch these killers. In a secluded cove just outside the reaches of the city of Cork, a woman wakes up...

Svatí, špioni a sérioví vrazi Fascinující cesta do myšlení psychopatů. Psychopati bývají nebojácní, sebevědomí, okouzlující, bezohlední a soustředění na cíl, což jsou vlastnosti jak ušité na míru úspěchu v 21. století. Mají skvělé mimikry, takže odhalit jejich toxicitu není na první pohled jednoduché. A odpoutat se od nich je o to těžší. Známý oxfordský psycholog Kevin Dutton s pomocí nejnovějších metod zobrazování mozku a rozvíjejících se neurověd dokazuje, že ne všichni jsou ale nebezpeční. Na rozdíl od svých temných kolegů využívají totiž své schopnosti ve prospěch druhých a jsou užiteční.

In this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism and true crime, Stacy Horn sheds light on how the subprime mortgage scandal of the 1970s and a long history of white-collar crime slowly devastated East New York, a Brooklyn neighborhood that would come to be known as the Killing Fields. On...