Criminal profiling—the delicate art of collecting and deciphering the psychological “fingerprints” of the monsters among us—holds an almost mythological status in pop culture. But what exactly is it, does it work, and why is the American public so entranced by it? What do we gain, and endanger, from studying why people commit murder? In The Monsters We Make, author Rachel Corbett explores how criminal profiling became one of society’s most seductive and quixotic undertakings through five significant moments in its histor

Corbett follows Arthur Conan Doyle through the London alleyways where Jack the Ripper butchered his victims, depicts the tailgate outside of Ted Bundy’s execution, and visits the remote Montana cabin where Ted Kaczynski assembled his antiestablishment bombs. Along the way emerge the people who studied and unraveled these cases. We meet self-taught psychologist Henry Murray, who profiled Adolf Hitler at the request of the U.S. government and later profiled his own students—including the future Unabomber—by subjecting them to cruel humiliation experiments. We also meet the prominent Yale psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis, who ended up testifying that Bundy was too sick to stand trial. Finally, Corbett takes the story into our own time, explaining the rise of modern “predictive policing” policies through a study of one Florida family that the analytics targeted—to devastating effects.

With narrative intrigue and deft research, Corbett delves deep into the mythology and reality of criminal profilers, revealing how thin the line can be separating those who do harm and those who claim to stop it.

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Mary Kelly was the final victim of the infamous Victorian-era serial killer, Jack The Ripper.

The circumstances of her death overshadow her life, and in The Last Dance of Mary Kelly , E. David Brown imagines for her a life and occupation beyond the "prostitute" label typically attributed to her. Having fled poverty in Ireland, Mary Kelly finds employment in a textile factory where she becomes embroiled in the workers' movement, and the investigations of American journalist, Bryson Ward. Victorian London doesn't "shine" in this novel of intrigue and historical injustices; rather, it seeps into the skin like a coal-infused fog, and keeps you hooked. Because you might think you know the history, but until you turn the final page you won't know the whole story.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.