Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: New Criminal Profiling Courses Available Online

Starting this May, Excelsior College is offering a Criminal Profiling Certificate Program consisting of five courses (which can also be taken alone or as part of a liberal arts degree with a major in Criminal Justice). The courses are developed and taught by Pat Brown and specifically designed for practical application in the real world of police investigation and criminal profiling.

Excelsior College CPIA Course Schedule (all courses continue throughout the year - the listed date is the first time each course will become available in the program.)

CJ360 - Forensic Pathology (May 2008)
CJ472 - Psychology of Violent Crime (July 2008)
CJ372 - Crime Scene Analysis (September 2008)
CJ370 - Investigative Criminal Profiling (November 2008)
CJ470 - Serial Rape and Homicide Investigation (January 2009)

I look forward to working with all law enforcement officers and future profilers in this new program which I hope will bring criminal profiling into the regular course of homicide investigation and benefit all by its use as a logical tool for crime scene and investigative analysis.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Did the Marines Contribute to Maria Lauterbach's Demise?

The Marines have gotten a pretty bad rap in the Lauterbach case. Some, including Maria Lauterbach's family, have accused the Marines of ignoring Lauterbach's rape claim and putting her life in danger. Some think she ended up dead because the Marines failed to protect her. I beg to differ. The only person who put her life in danger was Maria Lauterbach.

Lauterbach claims she was raped but didn't report it for months. When she did finally go in, she states she was raped not once, but twice by the same man. This is a very improbable story and even her own mother states Lauterbach has quite a history of lying. Now, if you were a Marine investigator, are you really going to be able to make any kind of rape case out of this? No physical proof? A claim she was raped twice by the same man but didn't bother to report it the first time? She is called a liar by her own mother? Sorry, but there is no case here for the Marines to bother with.

I am sure they made the same conclusion I did. Lauterbach messed around with a married man, didn't use birth control, got pregnant, and didn't want to get thrown out of the military. So she claimed rape so she would be blameless.

Now, to her actual death. My question is, "How did she get to Laurean's house? If she went there willingly, she either was trying to blackmail him or she is the most foolish human being known to man. Would you go to the house of a man who raped you twice?

Of course, if Laurean kidnapped her, this is a different matter altogether. We will have to wait to hear the facts on this.

Bottom line, though, the Marines are not responsible for the poor choices of their enlisted. Lauterbach may not have deserved to end up dead, but she seems to have worked overtime to put herself in a position to be done in.

Lauterbach was an adult; the Marines were not her protector. Only if there was a crime, and a crime that could be investigated, would the Marines have been required to step in. If Lauterbach truly felt the law was broken during her first sexual encounter with Laurean, it was her duty to immediately report it but she didn't. End of story.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Why Cops Speed

I know this seems a bit of an odd topic, but a good friend of mine was grousing the other day about police cruisers flying down the road without sirens or lights and saying how they were setting a bad example by breaking the law themselves. I have said just the same things many times myself but this time I defended police officers for their fast driving.

What brought about this change? Simply that I have done ride alongs now and see how things work from the police side of the matter. Unfortunately, very few citizens ever have this opportunity and never get the scoop. For some reason, there is nothing ever explained to the public about this practice and one can go all their life and never have a clue to the simple answer.

Here it is.

When a carjacking or a violent crime is going down or an officer is in trouble, cops fly from all directions, lights flashing and sirens blaring, because they need to get to the scene of the crime in as short a time as is possible. Lives depend on the police arriving and intervening and so, everyone get out of the way, it is a major emergency.

But, the during the rest of the shift, the calls are more in a gray area. Something may be going down and one wants to get there as quickly as possible without making a federal case out of it. Also, sometimes there are so many calls, shaving time off getting to them allows the police to handle more concerns.

And, imagine this, if every time a police officer was responding to a call he put on his police sirens and lights, we would be living in a pretty scary and noisy place! Can you imagine the complaints this would cause?

So, citizens, this is why police speed. Don't you wonder why you never knew this before? Strange, isn't it?

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Unplug Hug-a-Thug

I actually didn't know the term "Hug-a-Thug" until today. Urban dictionary's definition sent in by Ron Berlin of Denver:

Hug-a-Thug

Piece of shit bleeding heart liberals who cuddle and comfort murderers, rapist and child molesters in a correctional facility.

"Chester the molester sexually assaulted a staff member. A week later Shari bought him a Happy Meal."

Hence, Shari is a hug-a-thugger. While there seem to be oodles of hug-a-thug programs out there and many hug-a-thuggers, there seem to be almost no "comfort-a-victim" (I couldn't think of a cute rhyme) programs to match. I just read this appalling bit for example:

"With Prison Break, volunteers such as Hepler meet with eight to 10 medium-security prisoners who have been on good behavior for an hour each Thursday, and help them learn better interpersonal and communication skills. As a result of these interactions, the prisoners can carry themselves well when in front of a parole committee, Hepler explained."

How sweet! Hepler, a criminal profiler wannabe, helps criminals get over on parole committee members! Lovely!

When will people start understanding that criminals are in jail because they deserve to be there and if they want help, they should get it after they serve their time and they should get help for no other reason then that they want to act right from that day forth.

Meanwhile, victims should be getting all the attention as they are getting a life sentence and no one seems to give a damn.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Maybe Naomi Campbell isn't All the Bad

I have to admit it: I, actually, sort of, can't blame Naomi for her tirade at Heathrow Aiport that got her arrested. Apparently, there was some issue over a lost luggage item and Naomi went ballistic on the airline personnel. Now, I know she has had issues with temper before and threw a phone at a woman's head, but let's assume for a moment she isn't just narcissistic and feels she is entitled to get everything she wants and treats people badly. Let's consider, before we totally jump to charge her guilty, if she had some reason for her anger.

I will look to my own past dealing with people in some sort of service position. Now, before I get hate comments or emails, I want to say that some of the people I have dealt with care about their customers and clients and do a good job. But, there are many others that just send you over the edge.

1. Today - The manager at Andre Chreky Salon in Washington DC who refused to refund my money even though the hair stylist admitted to making a mistake (until I acted like Naomi and they wanted to get rid of me)

2. Last month - I stood outside of the DoubleTree in NYC waiting for the limo that was to take me to Penn Station. I was there 10 minutes before pick-up time. When the car was 10 minutes late, I called the company who told me he has been circling the block for ten minutes because I was not there. What a liar! Then, he told me the car would be there in five minutes. It was not. I called again. I was told it was down the block. This went on for 45 minutes until the driver finally showed up. I missed the train. I acted like Naomi.

3. Six months ago - Gold's Gym charged me $1500 for a contract I never signed. It took me acting like Naomi and threats of bad press to get my money back.

4. Two years ago - Cingular attempted to defraud me out of $3000. They sent the collection agency after me but I refused to cave in to their extortion plot. I acted like Naomi and then I bought two websites, http://www.suecingular.com/ and http://www.suecingular.net/. I finally one that battle.

5. Two and a half years ago - I was flying home from overseas when the NWA flight attendent gave me a turkey sandwich. I called her back and explained to her I am a vegetarian and I had ordered vegetarian food for the flight. She said, "Oh, go ahead and eat it. There is hardly enough turkey on there to notice it." I was shocked! As I was leaving the plane I ask to speak to the head steward who told me the woman did nothing wrong and when I got upset that they didn't care about this appalling treatment of a passenger, they told me to get lost. I acted like Naomi.

Okay, if Naomi threw stuff at folks and allegedly spit on the cop at Heathrow, I wasn't quite that bad. But, I have been quite loud on occasion because I hate being ripped off, lied to, and treated like dirt when I am either spending money in an establishment or hiring someone to work for me. I never treated anyone that way when I worked in a job providing services and I don't understand this kind of unacceptable behavior by employees of companies.

American customer service is at an all-time low, and, if they don't improve, I won't be the only one in the country "doing a Naomi."

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown