FBI criminal profiler will host lecture
Amanda Goeser
Issue date: 10/30/08 Section: News
Kirksville is not a common stop for former FBI Criminal Profilers, but it will be this Saturday.
The Truman Pre-Law club is hosting former FBI Criminal Profiler Peter Smerick, who will facilitate an afternoon workshop and an evening lecture open to all students.
Smerick will host the first session, "Criminal Profiling Techniques for Prosecutors and Criminal Defense Attorneys" from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the SUB Georgian Room. Part of the session will include practical exercises, one of which will include statements from rape victims. Students will determine which statements are truthful. Smerick said a problem that defense attorneys and prosecutors constantly face is whether or not the case subject is telling the truth.
The second session, "Inside the Mind of Criminal Profilers" is 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the SUB Georgian Room. Smerick said he will present cases and allowing attendees to brainstorm among themselves to see if they can think like a criminal profiler.
"I am going to be … bringing [students] into my world as a criminal profiler, and [show] how we try to determine deception when somebody is either speaking to us or has written something down, either a confession or a statement," Smerick said.
Smerick joined the FBI as a Special Agent in 1970 and eventually became a criminal profiler and violent crime analyst in 1988.
"Criminal profilers, basically, are very, very good analysts, and we can look at a crime scene from a behavioral perspective, while most detectives look at it strictly from a forensic science perspective," he said. "What we do is analyze crime scenes through the photographs submitted. It is an art form, not a science. It's something that takes years and years of training to look at a scene and be able to recognize and interpret correctly, what behavioral clues the offender is leaving behind, unintentionally."
Since retiring from the FBI 14 years ago, Smerick is now the President and CEO of the Academy Group, the largest privately owned forensic behavioral science firm in the world. Smerick and the eight other partners of the Academy Group are all FBI-trained criminal profilers.
The Truman Pre-Law club is hosting former FBI Criminal Profiler Peter Smerick, who will facilitate an afternoon workshop and an evening lecture open to all students.
Smerick will host the first session, "Criminal Profiling Techniques for Prosecutors and Criminal Defense Attorneys" from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the SUB Georgian Room. Part of the session will include practical exercises, one of which will include statements from rape victims. Students will determine which statements are truthful. Smerick said a problem that defense attorneys and prosecutors constantly face is whether or not the case subject is telling the truth.
The second session, "Inside the Mind of Criminal Profilers" is 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the SUB Georgian Room. Smerick said he will present cases and allowing attendees to brainstorm among themselves to see if they can think like a criminal profiler.
"I am going to be … bringing [students] into my world as a criminal profiler, and [show] how we try to determine deception when somebody is either speaking to us or has written something down, either a confession or a statement," Smerick said.
Smerick joined the FBI as a Special Agent in 1970 and eventually became a criminal profiler and violent crime analyst in 1988.
"Criminal profilers, basically, are very, very good analysts, and we can look at a crime scene from a behavioral perspective, while most detectives look at it strictly from a forensic science perspective," he said. "What we do is analyze crime scenes through the photographs submitted. It is an art form, not a science. It's something that takes years and years of training to look at a scene and be able to recognize and interpret correctly, what behavioral clues the offender is leaving behind, unintentionally."
Since retiring from the FBI 14 years ago, Smerick is now the President and CEO of the Academy Group, the largest privately owned forensic behavioral science firm in the world. Smerick and the eight other partners of the Academy Group are all FBI-trained criminal profilers.
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