I started off enjoying this, but it really began to wear of me as I continued reading. Much of the material in the book is deeply disturbing and even as someone usually unfazed by crime, I began to worry irrationally about serial killers breaking into my house. As early as 1983, Leicester local police turned to Paul Britton for help with the Caroline Osborne murder. The young woman had been brutally murdered the year before and found with satanic symbols on it. Despite the questioning of 15,000 people and the provisional arrest of 80 suspects, all investigations had previously been unsuccessful and the police were now hoping for new investigations. This case was one of the first in the UK to consider the involvement of a clinical psychologist. I love reading crime and thriller fiction books and I enjoy watching true crime programmes on tv so when friends were discussing The Jigsaw Man by Paul Britton I was immediately intrigued and wanted to read it.

Paul Britton has helped with most of the high-profile cases that have hit our newspapers and TV screens in the last twenty years. He doesn't glorify the cases he covers, he simply tells the story of their investigation. The police, in most cases, come out looking good. We learn very little about Paul himself, but you cannot help but realise what his job must have cost him. He mentions his faith, and I hope he holds on to it, because nothing else could make sense out of what he sees every week. What he searches for at the crime scene are not frinerprints, fibres or bloodstains - he looks for the 'mind trace' left behind by those responsible: the psychological characteristics that can help the police to identify and understand the nature of the perpetrator.Paul Britton was asked to create a perpetrator profile. It had the following points (quote from Britton): The modern history of what came to be known as "offender profiling" began in the 40s when the US Office of Strategic Services asked William Langer, a psychiatrist, to draw up a profile of Adolf Hitler. After the second world war, Lionel Haward, a psychologist working for the Royal Air Force, drew up a list of characteristics which high-ranking Nazi war criminals might display. Then in the 50s, James A Brussel, a US psychiatrist, drew up what turned to be an uncannily accurate profile of a bomber who had been terrorising New York. The perpetrator should not have more than average intelligence and education. If he is employed, he will be an unskilled or manual worker. He will be single, have a behaviorally lonely lifestyle and live either at home with his parents or in an apartment to himself. Whilst what is missing may be unforgivable, what is here is interesting. The period during which Britton was an active criminal psychologist covers a period of time I was old enough to be aware of many of the cases, which made the stories more interesting to me, as I was already familiar with the outcomes, as far as was reported in the news at the time and this provided an additional look inside a case from a perspective that few of us get to see. As someone with an interest in both true crime and psychology, much of what was mentioned here was fascinating to me.

Forensic psychologist Paul Britton can 'walk through the minds' of those who murder, rape, torture, extort and kidnap. He can see the world through their eyes and know what they're thinking. That is why the police have called on him to help with many high-profile criminal investigations and catch those responsible. He should have a history of failed or unsatisfactory relationships, if he had relationships at all. In addition to his sexual abnormality, he is likely to have some kind of sexual dysfunction, such as difficulty having an erection or controlling ejaculation . [..] If so, there was no reason to believe that the malfunction would have subsided over time.The police decided that there was now enough evidence and brought charges . After twelve months in prison, the undercover investigation and its methods in the trial were heavily criticized by Judge Justice Ognall and judged to be unsuitable for providing evidence and rejected. In his judgment he wrote: " [..] I fear that this behavior not only reveals exaggerated zeal, but also represents a massive attempt to incriminate a suspect through clearly deceptive behavior of the most offensive kind. [..] Any attempt, the material collected through the undercover investigation processing and using is doomed to failure. [..] The prosecution tried to convince me that the purpose of the exercise was to induce the defendant to either exonerate himself or to further incriminate himself. I feel compelled to state that I consider this account of the action to be highly insincere. ". Other experts who were brought into the trials at a later point in time also said that the recorded conversations between Lizzie James and Colin Stagg had such a suggestive pornographic character that they could not believe it. The charges against Stagg were dropped. This one now sued the police for compensation. Paul Britton grew up in a modest family with his younger brother Anthony and his single mother. When he was twelve years old, his mother married a former major in the Red Army who had left the Soviet Union after World War II as a declared anti-communist . My only complaint is that Britton tried too hard to be humble. To down play his role. It actually emphasised how highly he thinks of himself and that ok. I’m ok with someone like Britton thinking highly of himself as he can manage it without belittling those around him. Our Liverpool Psychology hub is a creative arena that can be utilised to share innovative ideas and opinions with regards to contemporary issues in psychology. Our hub is enthusiastically supported by a strong network of passionate students, researchers and teaching staff who are fully committed to promoting the expanding field of psychology to a wider audience.

He may be attracted to some form of pornography that plays a role in his sexual fantasies. There would be some violent aspects to it and he would fantasize about similar experiences. For all you aspiring forensic and criminal psychologists out there, if you’re looking for a bit of summer reading, I’d highly recommend The Jigsaw Man.After primary school , he failed the entrance exams ( Eleven Plus Exam ) to the high school branch of a secondary school. Later he complained that only the children from the better families received sufficient support from the school to be able to pass this test, while the children of the lower classes did not receive this special instruction. As a result, all children of the lower classes failed the test, while those of middle class families, regardless of intellectual level, passed it due to the thorough preparation on the part of the teachers. Despite the maximum school leaving certificate that he can now achieve, the British equivalent of the secondary school leaving certificate , the desire to study arose early on. Early next year, however, the role of such people will come under close examination when Paul Britton, who has worked on a string of notorious cases over the past 20 years, will appear before a British Psychological Society disciplinary hearing. You can't put it down because you wouldn't sleep , until you knew the people responsible for the crimes were safely behind bars. Authority data (person): GND : 120174693 ( OGND , AKS ) | LCCN : nb97012919 | VIAF : 53639489 | Wikipedia people search personal data What he searches for at the scene of the crime are not fingerprints – he looks for the ‘mind trace’ left behind by those responsible: the psychological characteristics that can help the police identify and understand the nature of the perpetrator.”