The idea that modern scientific psychology can be of value to those investigating crimes has a long history. One of the founders of modern psychology, Hugo Munsterberg, wrote a book about psychology and crime over a century ago and even Sigmund Freud gave advice to judges about distortions in memor y. The idea that psychologists can help to solve crimes became even more prominent in popular culture when Thomas Harris’ book The Silence of the Lambs became a successful film.
Since The Silence of the Lambs there has been an enormous amount of speculative writing which implies that a clever psychologist can get into the mind of a violent criminal to solve crimes that flummox detectives. This has confused the reality of psychological contributions to investigations because these accounts owe far more to Sherlock Holmes and his fictional successors than to any real scientific activity.
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