Pre-Law Club Presents FBI Criminal Profiler

The Pre-Law Club will host speaker Peter Smerick, an FBI Criminal Profiler, at 7 p.m. Nov. 1 in the Georgian Rooms A-C in the Student Union Building.

The program, “Inside the Mind of Criminal Profilers,” will take students behind the scenes regarding the actual role played by criminal profilers compared to Hollywood’s portrayal of this career.

Techniques employed by criminal profilers will be discussed and the audience will have an opportunity to analyze several crimes from a behavioral perspective and “walk in the shoes” of a criminal profiler.

Prior to the presentation, Smerick will lead a workshop, “Criminal Profiling Techniques for Prosecutors and Criminal Defense Attorneys,” from 3-5 p.m. in the same location. The workshop will familiarize students with a technique utilized by criminal profilers to determine if there is possible deception in statements provided by victims, suspects and witnesses, by analyzing the actual words spoken or written by these individuals.
Participants will be offered the opportunity to utilize these techniques while analyzing written statements prepared by alleged rape victims.

Smerick worked for the FBI for 30 years, holding various positions including, special agent, instructor at the FBI Academy, criminal profiler and violent crime analyst. His expert knowledge in the areas of homicide, rape, child molestation, kidnapping and extortion allowed him to testify before both houses of Congress regarding his profile of David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidians during the group’s 1993 stand-off with the FBI in Waco, Texas.

Smerick currently serves as the president and CEO of The Academy Group, the largest privately owned forensic behavioral science firm in the world. He has also provided expert commentary for television, radio and print media regarding violent crime analysis, and he served as the CNN commentator for the movie “Hannibal.”
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