| Title | : | Obsession |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0671017047 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780671017040 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 496 |
| Publication | : | First published February 1, 1998 |
Obsession Reviews
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Anyone who's followed my reviews for any length of time knows that I'm a big John Douglas fan, and that I'm steadily working my way through all his books. I enjoyed this about as much as I've enjoyed the others, although I think that
The Cases That Haunt Us is still my favorite. This book had more practical application and advice for victims and people seeking to avoid being victims, so in that sense it's a little different from the others, but he illustrates his points with appropriately hair-raising and horrifying stories.
Part of what has always bothered me about his books, even to an extent about this one, is the "So what?" factor, or maybe it's more appropriately called the "What now?" factor. Really, what do we do with sex offenders or child molesters or rapists? Do we lock someone up indefinitely because of what they might do? Or do we keep them locked up forever after the first offense? As Douglas asks, what is the acceptable failure right if we don't keep someone locked up, and they kill or rape again? Are we a country that sticks someone in a dungeon for the rest of their life at the first opportunity? Or are we a country that lets people that WE KNOW will rape, molest, stalk or kill again back out on the streets for new victims? Douglas doesn't answer the questions because there are no real answers, sadly, and any blanket decision you make is going to be the wrong one at least some of the time, and what price then?
Also, as someone who's been stalked twice, I can say with absolute authority that his comments on how to deal with stalkers and what life is like for the victim, and how difficult it is to get any kind of assistance, are 100% accurate. -
Not as good as
Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit, still prefer Roy Hazelwood (
Dark Dreams: A Legendary FBI Profiler Examines Homicide and the Criminal Mind is fantastic) but must give Douglas for his work on having stalking taken seriously and as a precursor to more serious crimes. Maybe it was my edition that was part fossilised or this book is in need of an update as the first chapter is about the BTK killer who, Douglas laments, is yet to be identified. Not a riveting or particularly illuminating read, just a reinforcement of my wish to be reincarnated as John Douglas. -
"Obsession" is the fourth book I've read from the John Douglas/Mark Olshaker partnership and I'm definitely grown less impressed. It's been several years since I read "The Cases That Haunt Us" (actually the next book in the series after "Obsession") and I'm beginning to wonder what I saw in them. While I recall the first two as quite compelling, "Obsession" feels like is treading some very old ground, indeed. The chapter where Douglas re-hashes the three serial offenders who were combined to form Thomas' Harris' "Hannibal Lecter" character seems particularly tired and repetitive.
There's no question that Douglas possesses an amazing understanding of the crimes and criminals which most captivate our collective psyche, but there really are only just so many times you can go over that type of carnage and depravity in the same half-clinical, half- tough guy voice and still be interesting. Absent a particularly compelling reason, I don't see myself picking up another one of his offerings any time soon. -
I know this book is 25 years old, but JESUS it's been a while since I read something that aged so poorly.
His theorizing on a pseudonym-granted BTK and the Green River Killer, who weren't caught until a few years after Obsession's publication, was at least a little entertaining. I'd say he was 50-75% right on them. Him being of the mind the Green River Killer was multiple people? Whooooo was Douglas wrong.
What was less funny was him pushing the "crack baby epidemic" bullshit in the same chapter as the above, saying we'd be seeing things get bad 2005-2010 once those crack babies got old enough. That was never anything more than a racist moral panic from the Reagan and Bush I era. Of course he'd push that, though. He is/was law enforcement.
Then he dug into the meat of the book: deconstructing the minds of rapists, stalkers, and killers so the general public can learn how to fight back. The four categories of rapists--the power-assurance, exploitative, anger, and sadistic--are solid, as is his analysis of them. All of these are ideas covered in classes I've taken and more modern research, so they clearly work and stuck around.
That makes it so much more frustrating I can't continue reading this book for other valuable insights it likely has. Why?
LINDA FUCKING FAIRSTEIN.
Douglas quotes her regularly, sings her praises, and talks about cases she's handled, like the murder of Jennifer Levin by Robert Chambers.
You may know her better from the case of the Exonerated Five who were falsely accused and convicted of a rape in Central Park. She was behind the prosecution. Even after DNA evidence and a confession from the real rapist conclusively proved the Five had nothing to do with the crime, she insists to this day that they were "no angels" (we always hear that phrase when it comes to Black children falsely accused whether they're alive or dead) and she even filed suit against Ava DuVernay, Netflix, and the writer of the series over the portrayal of Fairstein in When They See Us.
The breaking point was chapter 6, The Survivor's Journey. It opens with a description of the Scottsboro Boys, who were falsely accused of raping two white women on a train in 1931. One of the women later recanted her claim, but the other held firm until her death. There was no evidence whatsoever they had been raped, let alone by the nine Black men and boys on that train.
Not that it mattered to white Alabama. To make a long story VERY short, the nine went through legal hell for years with trials perverted by racism.
Hmmmm, a rape trial heavily affected by public sentiment and racism where the defendants were actually innocent. Funny how that describes the Scottsboro Boys AND the Exonerated Five.
And that's what broke me. There was not going to be any critical thinking or self-awareness. The index showed Fairstein was going to keep coming up throughout the book, but there was no mention of the Exonerated Five or any facet of their case.
I've tried again and again to put to words how hypocritical that is as well as how wrong it is to exclude something contradictory to suit your narrative, but I just can't. The words. Not there. It's best expressed as a primal scream at three in the morning. -
To live in a state of fear, according to retired FBI profiler and author John Douglas, is to live with a sense of heightened awareness. Although, he goes on to say, victims of such crimes of stalking did nothing to deserve their perpetual state of terror. But living with a moderate dose of common sense fear is a precursor to living a safer life because that is the way our world and justice system does (or maybe doesn't) work.
"There is no conflict between civil liberties and victim's rights," he writes. And yet, a crime victim can realistically expect to have his or her image mud-raked by the defence while not having the same "luxury" themselves (on fear of having a case thrown out due to mistrial, or perhaps appealed on those very grounds). Douglas presents various examples from real-life in which it is the accused (and, oft-times, previously convicted felon) whose rights seem to supercede the wounded party.
Douglas makes it clear through his writing that victims cannot always rely on the good sense of law enforcement - in fact, he attributes the syndrome of repeat offenders to the lenience of the American court system and the lack of expedient capital punishment. Victims also cannot dependently judge a person by using the same set of socially-set values that they themselves live by - a stalker, or serial rapist or murderer, or spousal abuser, etc. has a particular obsession that does not abide by any logical standard or legislation. A protective order, while a positive step toward self-protection from a potential attacker, is essentially just a scrap of notarized paper which may even exacerbate feelings of hostility in said victimizer.
And so, Douglas devotes the bulk of Obsession to detailing the basics of self-protection through personality profiling. If a person can only fully depend on their own wits, then best to begin the needed education to fulfill this skill. Though a rape, or attack, or even murder is never the fault of the victim (a point which Douglas makes extremely clear, in so many words), it is every person's responsibility to learn how to best prevent such an attack.
Through tragic anecdotal (and much-publicized cases), Douglas delves into the particulars of a variety of situations, using such tactics to startle a reader into seeing how the criminal mind can work. Each case is different, he says, and deserves individualized attention - but the ultimate goal is to have a library of essential knowledge in one's head which could ultimately protect one's well-being. And the well-being of loved ones.
Certainly, Obsession relies heavily on shock value. The stories given within are genuine articles which have appeared in newspapers all across the country (with the occasional change in details to protect privacy, in certain cases). And the level of detail spares little from the more sensitive reader. However, such examples are necessary (Douglas feels) in order to fully illustrate his points, and to give some level of credibility to his views and suggestions. He was directly involved in many of these cases, and therefore has brought away something which he wishes to share with the rest of the public.
Though arguments can be made against several of his points in this book (particularly his less-than-optimistic view with regards to criminal rehabilitation), Douglas himself presents decisive and pointed evidence to back up his views and concerns. It is a book written with both real-life experience as well as factual evidence - and that alone helps to make his points that much stronger. -
"Obsession" is a rather thematic addition to John Edward Douglas professional experience memoir.
As the title suggests, primary focused on crimes related to sexual predators, stalking and thematic related kills.
I get the point that the authors / publishers wanted to bring on thematic novels out of what the original "Mindhunter" was, but it felt more like warmed over stories. Not enough new information for a book and a lot of repeats. Actually, only the "stalkers" part was new to be observed, but only the scientific and legal matters of the crimes was significantly reviewed. It felt more of an artificial composure of already prepared material for other books and for me it failed the initial idea to deepen our knowledge into the subject by sharing the extraordinary experience of the FBI agent. May be it would go smooth in the light of the #metoo campaigns, and public talk on the matter of sexual assaults. May be aspiring for the silent victims of such crimes. Still I can not find the particular necessity to bring up this novel, once you have the rest with similar content, but better narrated.
Note that most of the (probably all) cases examined could be (and actually are) disturbing, so - reader discretion is advised. These are true stories, which you could be familiar with from TV series, news reports, articles, etc.
Would not recommend it if you have already read any of the first 2 books. If you haven't - I recommend reading them instead. And this one - only in a case you are particularly interested in the thematic, or just a huge "profiler" fan who wants more reading material on the subject, even thou it could be repetitive in large sections.
P.S. All "Mindhunter" books I find suitable for audio format perception, as it is a narration of a memoir type and it is recorded by the author itself. -
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. -
I’ve read this author’s other books and think this is his best and most disturbing but important one. If some of the cases in this book don’t make you angry, then you must have been skimming. I found the concentration on the aftermath for the friends and families of murder victims to be especially interesting and poignant- from support groups through to their experiences with law and court system.
What I liked best about this book was the authors no nonsense approach and solid bullshit detector. He tells it like it is, presents solid arguments and does not pull his punches. -
If you’ve read one, you’ve them all. I believe this is one of John Douglas’s earlier books. I have read quite of few of his now, Mindhunter being the first which got me hooked. But these high publicity cases often pop up in his books and the repetition does grow tired as I don’t wish to continually read about the same cases.
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*4.5/5*
*9.0/10*
God, I love John Douglas. -
One of the last Douglas and Olshaker FBI profiling books I had left to read, but this was probably the least interesting one for me for the majority of the book minus a few interesting cases at the end. It mostly covered crimes involving stalkers and other unhealthy obsessions. There were some informative chapters about how to avoid becoming a victim and recognising when someone’s behaviour isn’t quite right, and particular cases that have lead to changes in laws over the years. Some of the stalking cases were very scary.
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Od miesiąca nie kupiłam żadnej książki. Miesiąca! To u mnie wyczyn wręcz nieprawdopodobny. Ten zastój zakupowy trwałby i dłużej gdyby nie świeżo wydane u nas kolejne true crime autorstwa legendarnego profilera FBI John Douglas. Jego „Mindhunter” zafascynował mnie totalnie. Czytałam z wypiekami na twarzy i ciarkami na plecach. Nie mogłam odłożyć, a jednocześnie po zmroku, nawet w domu pod ciepłą kołdrą, nie czułam się bezpiecznie czytając o kolejnych coraz bardziej przerażających i mrożących krew w żyłach sprawach seryjnych morderców oszałamiająco ciekawie przedstawianych przez Douglasa. I liczyłam na to - a nawet byłam pewna - że takich samych emocji dostarczy mi „Obsesja”. I z samego początku na to się zapowiadało. Niestety - dla mnie - bardzo szybko okazało się, że najnowsza pozycja najpopularniejszego profilera w całości poświęcona jest drapieżcom seksualnym. A na moje nieszczęście ten typ przestępstw kompletnie mnie nie interesuje. Szybko lektura zaczęła mnie męczyć, musiałam zmuszać się do czytania. I nie zrozumcie mnie źle - to absolutnie nie jest słaba książka. Jeśli ktoś interesuje się sprawami stalkerów, gwałcicieli i innych różnych dewiantów seksualnych to lektura „Obsesji” będzie dla niego pasjonującym przeżyciem. Douglas - jak w „Mindhuntzerze” wyczerpująco i z mnóstwem przeróżnych smaczków z dziedziny kryminalistyki opisuje sprawy i śledztwa, w których brał udział. I gdyby gwałcicieli zamienić na seryjnych morderców to i ja „Obsesji” dałabym prawdopodobnie maksymalną liczbę gwiazdek. Jednak jak już wspominałam - przestępstwa seksualne to zdecydowanie not my cup of tea, że się tak wyrażę. I owszem - mój błąd, że przed zakupem nie przeczytałam opisu, a ślepo rzuciłam się na książkę, bo wystarczyło mi nazwisko autora. Zostawiam bez oceny, bo i nie doczytałam do końca i gdybym miała ocenić subiektywnie, zgodnie ze swoimi uczuciami w trakcie czytania to moja końcowa opinia byłaby negatywna. A to byłoby wielce niesprawiedliwe i krzywdzące dla tej pozycji, bo obiektywnie jest ona napisana bardzo dobrze, zawiera od groma kryminalistycznych ciekawostek, a omawiane przypadki są szerzej nieznane. Potrafię docenić, bo „Obsesja” to bardzo solidne true crime - dla pasjonatów przestępstw seksualnych absolutny must read. Niestety ja do nich nie należę.
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Magnificently written!
I am a huge fan of John Douglas books. His FBI profiling books and discussions about real cases intrigue and inspire me. Douglas writes well and brings the reader into the dark side of serial killers and torturers. It was an amazing book and I love how his mind works. I've personally used his books to do research for my own novels. Love his work and as long as he writes it, I will read it. is a definite recommendation by Amy's Bookshelf Reviews. This one, about obsession and the minds behind it, such as killers and stalkers, and the victims even tell how to fight back. It's a greatly terrifying group of true stories, taking a peek inside the mind of criminals. I look forward to reading many more stories by this author. Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists, and Stalkers and Their Victims and Tells How to Fight Back is highly recommended by Amy's Bookshelf Reviews. I look forward to reading many more stories by this author. This review was originally posted in 2014. It is has been updated, and is now being posted on my blog, Amy's Bookshelf Reviews in 2022. -
This one focuses on understanding why killers, stalkers and rapists do what they do and makes suggestions on how these situations might be best handled. Apparently meant to play on the fears of a public beaten daily over the head with the idea that there is a criminal lurking behind every tree, but ultimately empowering and sensitive to the needs of crime victims.
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John Douglas is easily my favorite nonfiction writer. His books are always entertaining and informative, and Obsession, which focuses on sexual offenses spanning from rape to stalking, was no exception.
Obsession tackles the various psychological elements of sexual predators, from their rough backgrounds to deep-seated insecurity issues. Douglas illustrates the various components of what contributes to the creation of a violent sexual offender, and gives examples of some of these offenders potential styles of behavior, using in-depth, specific, real-life examples. He chronicles the process of criminal devolution with various serial rapists, explaining how and why the offenders were caught, often as a result of their own sloppiness as their cockiness progressed.
Douglas also dedicated a fascinating chapter on stalking, giving particular attention to the case of Laura Black being stalked by a coworker as an example. He emphasized the subtle, less well known emotions that victims of these crimes go through--he took time to explain why Laura was right to feel harassed when her stalker consistently brought her baked goods, even though at a first glance, those around her and the general public would be tempted to call this type of persistent predator "sweet."
And that's another thing that makes Douglas so fascinating to read. He presents the reader with tremendously difficult, heavy subject matter and approaches it with incredible sensitivity, compassion, and professionalism. He often dedicates whole chapters towards particularly heart-wrenching cases, with a focus on exactly who these bright young victims were, and how well loved they were and how much potential for good they had in the world. In Obsession, he chronicles 8 year old Destiny Souza and 19 year old Stephanie Schmidt. By introducing the reader to these cases, Douglas is also able to discuss the monumental efforts their families have gone through in creating and advocating for victims rights, a topic he spent considerable time on compared to previous books and was informative and delightful to read about.
Like many Douglas books, he spends a fair amount of time encouraging readers to stay safe, how to help others, and how to get involved in preventing future crime, as well as making practical, informed suggestions on how individuals, communities, and the government at large may enact meaningful change. An eye-opening and fascinating section of this book highlighted just how much is wrong with our justice system that many members of the public, myself included, didn't realize.
Douglas is hard and stern on the people who perpetrate these crimes, and its wonderful to see. He is coming from a place of knowledge and experience, and his stances on things such as criminal rehabilitation and the death penalty are refreshing and informative to read.
Obsession is unique in that it has a chapter dedicated to the three composite characters that inspired Buffalo Bill in Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs. John Douglas is often fictionalized, most notably as Jack Crawford in Harris' Hannibal Lecter books, so it was interesting to see his take on the villain his fictional team was up against. Moreover, the profiles he did on Ed Gein, Ted Bundy, and Gary Heidnik were downright chilling.
John Douglas' books are fantastic because they don't read like nonfiction; they pull the reader in. After, the reader is left feeling educated, informed, and entertained. And Douglas always seems to end on a note of hope. -
This is the fourth or fifth book I’ve read by Douglas and Olshaker. They have a tendency to repeat a lot of cases throughout their books. I think this is only their third or fourth published book, so perhaps it’s the wrong one on which to make this complaint, but it’s true nonetheless. I’m still always fascinated by Douglas’ take on each case, and he clearly knows what he’s talking about. And there are plenty of new cases in each book, it’s just that same ones tend to pop up throughout many of them (i.e. Suzanne Collins).
I am not a fan of this narrator. Danny Campbell also narrated Journey Into Darkness, and perhaps another that I can’t remember, and I think he’s my least favourite of the books I’ve listened to from Douglas (aside from the gentleman who narrated “Inside the Mind of BTK”). His voice has this gravelly texture to it, and he doesn’t really change his tone or inflections when speaking from someone who is not John Douglas, which at first makes it difficult to tell if this is a personal opinion of Douglas, or if he’s quoting someone else.
All in all, the book itself was a fascinating look into the crimes of rape and stalking. And I found Douglas to be very compassionate towards the victims and their families, as well as surprisingly forward-thinking in terms of how the public and the government should approach these kinds of crimes. For example, he states how important it is to NEVER blame a victim of rape for the crime perpetrated against her. No matter what she was wearing, what she was doing, whether or not she was a sex worker, whether she initially wanted it then changed her mind, NOTHING excuses or mitigates the actions of the offender. He also uses the following example: “If someone had been the victim of burglary, you would never blame them for not being home all day every day to watch over their things, so why is it okay to blame victims of stalking or rape for not spending all of their time considering every action they should take to avoid a violence they should never have had to suffer in the first place?” That’s not verbatim, but it was something along those lines. He also frequently makes suggestions such as allowing more government funding for social work programs, as opposed to hiring more police. He doesn’t argue we should get rid of police completely by any means, but they are there to help when a problem occurs. They do not prevent the problem in the first place. These may seem like obvious things now, but for the late 90’s I think it’s pretty impressive.
Overall, a fascinating read, but I’m really not a fan of this narrator (forgive me Danny Campbell). -
Od miesiąca nie kupiłam żadnej książki. Miesiąca! To u mnie wyczyn wręcz nieprawdopodobny. Ten zastój zakupowy trwałby i dłużej gdyby nie świeżo wydane u nas kolejne true crime autorstwa legendarnego profilera FBI John Douglas. Jego „Mindhunter” zafascynował mnie totalnie. Czytałam z wypiekami na twarzy i ciarkami na plecach. Nie mogłam odłożyć, a jednocześnie po zmroku, nawet w domu pod ciepłą kołdrą, nie czułam się bezpiecznie czytając o kolejnych coraz bardziej przerażających i mrożących krew w żyłach sprawach seryjnych morderców oszałamiająco ciekawie przedstawianych przez Douglasa. I liczyłam na to - a nawet byłam pewna - że takich samych emocji dostarczy mi „Obsesja”. I z samego początku na to się zapowiadało. Niestety - dla mnie - bardzo szybko okazało się, że najnowsza pozycja najpopularniejszego profilera w całości poświęcona jest drapieżcom seksualnym. A na moje nieszczęście ten typ przestępstw kompletnie mnie nie interesuje. Szybko lektura zaczęła mnie męczyć, musiałam zmuszać się do czytania. I nie zrozumcie mnie źle - to absolutnie nie jest słaba książka. Jeśli ktoś interesuje się sprawami stalkerów, gwałcicieli i innych różnych dewiantów seksualnych to lektura „Obsesji” będzie dla niego pasjonującym przeżyciem. Douglas - jak w „Mindhuntzerze” wyczerpująco i z mnóstwem przeróżnych smaczków z dziedziny kryminalistyki opisuje sprawy i śledztwa, w których brał udział. I gdyby gwałcicieli zamienić na seryjnych morderców to i ja „Obsesji” dałabym prawdopodobnie maksymalną liczbę gwiazdek. Jednak jak już wspominałam - przestępstwa seksualne to zdecydowanie not my cup of tea, że się tak wyrażę. I owszem - mój błąd, że przed zakupem nie przeczytałam opisu, a ślepo rzuciłam się na książkę, bo wystarczyło mi nazwisko autora. Zostawiam bez oceny, bo i nie doczytałam do końca i gdybym miała ocenić subiektywnie, zgodnie ze swoimi uczuciami w trakcie czytania to moja końcowa opinia byłaby negatywna. A to byłoby wielce niesprawiedliwe i krzywdzące dla tej pozycji, bo obiektywnie jest ona napisana bardzo dobrze, zawiera od groma kryminalistycznych ciekawostek, a omawiane przypadki są szerzej nieznane. Potrafię docenić, bo „Obsesja” to bardzo solidne true crime - dla pasjonatów przestępstw seksualnych absolutny must read. Niestety ja do nich nie należę.
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This book is by the FBI agent that the show 'Mindhunter' is based on—John Douglas.
In this particular book (he has others), he presents cases of serial rapists, and other crimes and criminals, and details how the perpetrators were able to gain access to their victims and explains how you can avoid becoming a victim (basically, how to be aware and keep yourself safe) although most of these tips are in the closing chapters. He also spends time talking about help for survivors and the families of victims, programs and the like, which, as someone who is not a victim, I admittedly skimmed through. JD brings up the issue of laws needing to be changed, and that are being changed, to try to keep criminals in jail longer, etc. Lots of info in here. Some really interesting and scary stuff.
The only thing that could have been scaled back on, and I'm sure he did it as an honor to the families who spoke to him, but as a reader I completely skimmed through, was these lengthy details and background about the families of the victims. This may make me come across as harsh, but it wasn't really imperative to, or completely in line with, the rest of the book.
Overall, definitely worth reading. And now I'm going to go lock my doors. -
The writing isn't the most sophisticated but the stories are articulated clearly. The point of the book, essentially, is learning about criminal's obsessions and why they commit their crimes-- but its core message is one of solidarity with victims as well as preventative measures so people can protect themselves. The righteous anger is refreshing, as many stories of true crime are either sensationally lurid without regard for the victim or cold and detached to make swallowing such horrible stories easier. However, Douglas (&Olshaker) artfully ties in why his experience not just allows but compels him to become so emotional over the fate of these victims.
An absolute must read for everyone, whether you casually watch Criminal Minds when it's on TV or if you own every Ann Rule novel and have them annotated with a unique color coding.
Only a few complaints: sometimes the storytelling became a bit jumbled (mentioning stories that had yet to be told and would not be for a few chapters) and several details that bothered me because of my "obsession": i.e., Ann Rule worked with Ted Bundy in a crisis call center, not a rape crisis call center. Any of these cons do not outweigh the pros. -
10/120 (2020 Reading Challenge)
Another interesting JD read (listened to a couple on audible). Fascinating, hard reading & definitely not for everyone one. In many ways there could not be a more horrible subject. But regardless it exists & studying the reason why gives us the best chance of prevention, which is almost the motto of the book. Even if In some respects the views on stopping it are pretty bleak. At least past a certain point in a child’s development. I agree that I don’t think anyone is truly born evil as such. To use that word which I don’t quite agree with but to explain some people other words do not seem to quite suffice. Though the multiple factors are very hard to predict. There are definitely many indicators. & then there is the very problem that if you know you have a dangerous case on your hands, how could you detain them if they did nothing wrong yet they were a ticking bomb as it were? Fascinating concepts and thoughts. I enjoyed now as I am totally obsessed if it were with the authors work (playing on the title, see what I did there?) I am going to read the next one. -
My second outing with Douglas and this was definitely less engaging than "Mindhunters" but the topic is much more focused and the work itself is rather short. It mostly delves into the realm of rapists and stalkers by review of several poignant case studies and discusses the main premises highlighting the behavior behind these acts. While some of the information presented seems dated, this is probably more a reflection of how it has become accepted by mainstream society as well as law enforcement personnel since this novel's initial publication. And hopefully that is a good thing if it allows perpetrators to be captured sooner or allows potential victims to seek help before a nefarious act occurs. Towards the end, Douglas provides source material for potential victims on how to recognize possible stalking behavior and how to obtain assistance from police, law or social services. For the right person, this work of nonfiction could be lifesaving.
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(NOTE: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book or a B. 3 stars means a very good book or a B+. 4 stars means an outstanding book or an A {only about 5% of the books I read merit 4 stars}. 5 stars means an all time favorite or an A+ {Only one of 400 or 500 books rates this!).
I don't know if this is wrong or not but I have always been curious as to how people can become serial killers. The depths that these people go to are unimaginable. John Douglas pioneered the FBI's psychological profiling of such people. He interviewed almost all of the well known serial killers of the last few decades. When he began his career no one in the FBI thought his plan was worthwhile. Now his methods are used internationally. Some of the stuff in his books will make you sick. But my morbid curiosity keeps me asking how do people get so messed up.. I hope to do a real review of this someday. -
This is typical John Douglas writing, giving case examples of mostly sex-driven crime. I didn't feel that it gave a great deal more insight into the origins of criminal behavior than other books—both his and other authors—have conveyed, but it still gives a look at the impact of crime on the survivors that is seldom related.
Mr. Douglas can get a little preachy at times, but the message is there: combating crime requires a commitment on the part of everyone to act, both before and after the crime is committed. If nothing else, hopefully this book will spur more people into taking a more proactive role in ensuring their own safety and a more active role in recognizing and reporting suspicious behavior. -
I fully understand the point of this book, why such book was written and published. And I fully agree with the mission of this book. There are lot of interesting informations (the story of little Destiny completely broke me, I have a daughter in Destiny's age so it was really difficult for me to read this part of the book), but somehow I had to force myself in reading and that's never a good sign. I like Douglas' other books but not this one.
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Just read Mindhunter
This is an interesting book in isolation and there are some interesting insights. But either you have already read the Mind Hunter, which is a lot more focused and groundbreaking, in which case this book offers little new information or if you haven't that's where you should start. While it expands the scope from serial killers to other types of sex crimes, it just feels like more of the same.
