As any police officer who has ever walked a beat or worked a crime scene knows, the street has its hot spots, patterns, and rhythms: drug dealers work their markets, prostitutes stroll their favorite corners, and burglars hit their favorite neighborhoods. But putting all the geographic information together in cases of serial violent crime (murder, rape, arson, bombing, and robbery) is highly challenging. Just ask the homicide detectives of the Los Angeles Police Department who hunted the Hillside Stranglers, or law enforcement officers in Louisiana who tracked the brutal South Side rapist. Geographic Profiling introduces and explains this cutting-edge investigative methodology in-depth. Used to analyze the locations of a connected series of crimes to determine the most likely area of offender residence, geographic profiling allows investigators and law enforcement officers to more effectively manage information and focus their investigations. This extensive and exhaustive work explains geographic profiling theories and principles, and includes an extensive review of the literature and research in the areas of criminal profiling, forensic behavioral science, serial violent crime, environmental criminology, and the geography of crime. For investigators and police officers deployed in the field, as well as criminal analysts, Geographic Profiling is a "must have" reference.

"…a gift of genius with immense potential for both 'front-line' criminal investigators and academic criminologists … an illuminating foundation for future research."

—Gregg McCrary, FBI Behavioral Science Unit (retired)

"D. Kim Rossmo, has concisely put his numerous years of experience as a law enforcement officer and criminologist into a very important and readable book for fellow practitioners…a leader in the field of geographical profiling for many years…a must read for law enforcement and criminal justice professionals alike."

—Crime & Justice International

"This is a thoroughly researched and carefully documented book with a bibliography exceeding 65 pages. The bibliography may well be the most extensive in the field, certainly so to this reviewer. For the serious researcher, the book is a 'must have' for the bibliography alone…This book explains the solid foundation on which geographic profiling has helped solve crimes, and includes contact information for qualified geographic profilers the author has trained. An entire chapter is devoted to practical applications of this new technique that address the information management problems presented by many major investigations."

—R. E. (Ron) MacKay, Insp., RCM Police (retired), Canadian Society of Forensic Science, 47th Annual Meeting, 2000

D. Kim Rossmo is the Detective Inspector in charge of the Vancouver Police Department's Geographic Profiling Section. Over the course of his 20-year policing career he has worked assignments in organised crime intelligence, emergency response, patrol, crime prevention, and community liaison. He holds a Ph.D. in criminology and has researched and published in the areas of policing, offender profiling, and environmental criminology. He is an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University, sits on the editorial board for the international journal Homicide Studies, and is a member of the American Society of Criminology. Dr. Rossmo is the Vice President of the Canadian Association of Violent Crime Analysts, a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Investigative Operations Advisory Committee, and a former Executive Vice President of the Canadian Police Association. In 1998 he was made a Fellow of the Western Society of Criminology, and in 1999 accredited as one of British Columbia's top innovators and granted an Outstanding Alumni of the Year Award from Simon Fraser University for his work in developing geographic profiling. His present duties include assisting police agencies in Canada, the U.S., Britain, and Europe, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Scotland Yard, in cases of serial murder, rape, bombing, and arson. He has been recognized as an expert witness in the geography of crime and the hunting patterns of serial offenders. Dr. Rossmo is currently involved in several research, writing, and development projects.