Biography

Head of the FBI's Investigative Support Unit - the team that tackles the most baffling and senseless of unsolved violent crimes. He was the model for the Jack Crawford character in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Joined the FBI in 1970 and for six years worked in Detroit. In 1976 he transferred to the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, where he studied applied criminal psychology at the FBI Academy. He earned a Ph.D. in psychology. Later, Douglas taught a course in criminal psychology for police officers throughout the U.S.

Has interviewed more than 100 murderers, rapists, kidnappers, arsonists, and other criminals, including Richard Speck, Charles Manson, James Earl Ray, Sirhan Sirhan, John Wayne Gacy, David Berkowitz, and Ted Bundy.

He and his colleague Robert K. Ressler are credited with pioneering criminal profiling and analysis.

Was involved in the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation in 1997 when John Ramsey and Patsy Ramsey, the parents, hired him. The police regarded them as major suspects, but Douglas believed them innocent. The case remains unsolved. [July 2003].

I have conducted interviews with serial killers where I've felt that had this person been raised in the right environment, they wouldn't have turned out the way they did. However, I don't excuse behavior once they have perpetrated a violent crime. I know from my research that they basically have no remorse for what they have done, that they do know right from wrong, and that at the time that they committed the crime they were making choices. My empathy is for the victims of these violent offenders who we seem to forget as years go by. ... I often feel the perpetrators are not punished strongly enough. I discount the notion of rehabilitation for any of them.

[on fictional characters based on him:] What they've done is misinterpret my books. If I watch Profiler (1996), it drives me crazy when she [Ally Walker, as Waters] gets this look on her face, and she has these flashbacks and starts seeing blood and gore. [Salon.com, 8 July 1999]

[on interviewing criminals:] I'd let the guy talk, let him project the blame onto someone else, even the victims. Then I'd challenge him. I'd say, 'I know your case. I looked at the crime-scene photos. You cannibalized that woman.' What they like is when you tell them about themselves. Then they open up. [October 1997]

I try to imagine what the victim would have been saying at the time of the attack. I try to think how [the offender] would have been reacting. I even visualize the expression on his face. . . . I can see the style of hair, maybe the kind of clothing this guy would be wearing. [Los Angeles Times, 8 December 1995]

You examine a crime scene with all its particular attributes in order to develop a general physical and psychological description of the person who committed the crime -- a profile. Then, in logical terms, you build a set of suspects who fall within the profile. Then, you move logically back to the particular. You try to find the specific criminal within that group. [Houston Chronicle, 13 October 1996]