About this title: The founder of the FBI's Investigative Support Unit revisits some famous and not-so-famous cases, providing psychological profiles of stalkers, murderers, and rapists.
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Your search:Books»Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists, Stalkers and Their Victims and Tells How to Fight Back(327 available copies)
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780671017040ISBN:0671017047
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Light edge and corner wear. No marks. Tight binding. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 496 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780671017040ISBN:0671017047
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. some wear on the front cover and slight creases on the spine. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 496 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very Good. 0671017047 Mass Market Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light curve to the spine / light reading creases to the covers. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780684845609ISBN:0684845601
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. 367 p. Audience: General/trade. hardcover, light edge wear and 2 tiny edge tears to dj, text in very good cond, clean and unmarked. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Pocket
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780671017040ISBN:0671017047
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
"Not nearly as good as Douglas's first book, largely because this book is written much more as a platform for his political views.
The parts about criminal behavior are, as to be expected, excellent. But he spends large portions of his book discussing the awfulness of criminal defense attorneys and legal rules of evidence, clearly without spending even a moment to consider why such rules exist, or if there is any value to the work of criminal defense attorneys. And that is really just the surface.
But if you can stomach his poorly constructed political philosophies, it is an excellent read with brilliant insights in the underlying behaviors driving rapists, stalkers, and murderers.
And, on occasion, he argues for one of his political ideas and actually manages to construct a well reasoned argument. I found myself, at least once, finding his argument compelling enough to change my opinion on sex offender registries."
"This book took me quite a while to get through in spite of the interesting material and historical case descriptions, mostly because I find Douglas' point of view creepy as all hell.
The whole thing comes off as almost a fire-and-brimstone argument for retribution, with long and heavy-handed emotional arguments on behalf of the victims. Douglas' world is absolute black and white, with pure, innocent, and heroic victims crying out for vengeance against wretchedly evil criminals. I found these especially hard to get through as their main object seemed to be the development of a sense of rage towards the offenders. In fact, he actually refers to them as "evil people" at least once in the book.
Maybe this is the only way that someone in law enforcement can afford to look at the world; our justice system doesn't seem to offer anything other than retribution, so you'd better believe in that to work there.
I suppose people who subscribe to this point of view could find this book inspirational, to me it bordered on hatemongering.
On a side note, I was also disturbed (although obviously not as not as much as by the crimes described) by the multiple instances of misconduct by police and others that are casually mentioned throughout the case stories (ranging from illegal searches to physically beating a suspect before a confession) that seem to draw no condemnation from the author."
"Excellent, moving, and both disturbing and inspirational. Dr. Douglas, with his co-author, presents articulate, organized accounts of a variety of crimes that were based on some form of obsession, either with a particular person - stalking - or with a type of victim and fantasy. He describes the offenders, but focuses more on the victims and their families, showing the impact of the crimes. The book's last section is a primer on how people can make themselves safer and a plea for the justice system to do a better job, once a person is identified as an ongoing threat to others, to protect society by keeping them contained either in prison or in psychiatric facilities as appropriate.
After my own experiences working with a number of similar offenders in a prison psychiatric hospital, and after seeing the impact of stalking and sexual assault on two family members (who, thankfully, survived those traumatic encounters), I can't agree strongly enough. There are some people who have clearly shown that they just can't be safely turned loose in society, and we have a responsibility to protect people from them. I saw some inmates like this committed to the state psychiatric hospital when their sentences ended, but at least one other very dangerous man was paroled despite all the warning signs being clear."
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