The Jigsaw Man By Paul Britton

Author : Paul Britton
Title : The Jigsaw Man
Published : 1997
Publisher : Corgi
Pages : 672
Genre Crime / Nonfiction / Psychology

     Forensic psychologist Paul Britton asks himself four questions when he is faced with a crime scene: what happened: who is the victim: how was it done, and why? Only when he has the answers to these questions can he address the fifth: who is responsible? An intensely private and unassuming man, Britton has an almost mythic status in the field of crime deduction because of his ability to 'walk through the minds' of those who stalk, abduct, torture, rape and kill other human beings. What he searches for at the scene of a crime are not fingerprints, fibers or blood stains - he looks for the 'mind trace' left behind by those responsible; the psychological characteristics that can help police to identify and understand the nature of the perpetrator.  The Jigsaw Man is Paul Britton's absorbing first-hand account of those cases, and of his groundbreaking analysis and treatment of the criminal mind. 

     As much as I'm a great lover of crime fiction sometimes I cross the line and take a look at what happens in the real world. Why do people choose to commit crimes, What drives someone to kill another? This is always a hard read, while it's good to play about in the world of fiction in the real world this is brutality at its most base level. When you put down the book that's it for you, you can choose to remember it or not. But here in the world of Britton that is not the case. For everyone affected it is with them forever. It is with a curious mind that I picked up a copy of this book. I once met a woman who was in the same line of work she dealt with some of the worst offenders England has to offer. But in her case, it is only once they have been sent to prison that she got involved.  While this is not my first time delving into the subject it is the first to look at my home country. Having before read Mind Hunters by John Douglas which I found fascinating if not a little terrifying.  

     What this author sets out to do is exercise some of our own misconceptions as to what it is they really do. It is no wonder really that the view most of us have of them is just a little skewed. In our lives, we have all to some degree been exposed to what Hollywood and the latest hit t.v shows think it is to be a criminal psychologist.  With flashing lights and pumping music the bravely ride once more into the breach to save the damsel in distress and bring us a little peace and justices. Which is great for entertainment purposes but as I discovered bare so little resemblance to what really takes place. These women and men spend their days pouring over the worst humankind has to offer. Things we would not wish upon our worst enemies. Having spent some time with Britton I believe this is not a job I could do my self and have the greatest respect for those who make it there living to do so. Within these pages, the author stops short of giving us every grisly detail. Something I think I will forever be grateful for. It has become far to easy to dismiss the latest brutal headline, we have all become numb to what gets pushed on us by the nightly news. But here we get to see with heartbreaking detail what has befallen these people.

     It would be far to easy I feel to assume that the police handle every aspect of a crime on there own. But no one group of people could deal with the workload nor the mental strain involved in such things. Which is why when a case comes up that is something above and beyond the usual people like Britton get called in. There work is to pull apart the destruction caused by such events and try and point there police in the right director. You a better off think of them like hunting dogs, trained to find the tiny clues that make up a trail to the truth. We are all fallible, in the best of crime fiction we want to know why? It is part of what I think makes us human, this needs to try and understand why a serial killer or rapist does what they do. And this is what Britton does, but he also works to help the police get these people to confess to what they have done. For these people, it is there own personal playground and they do not wish for any intruders. They think they are smarter than the police and as such, they can outsmart them. With the help of criminal psychologists, the police can find those small gaps in their defenses and with just the right amount of thought can split them wide open. 

     While the subject matter, for the most part, is both carry and horrific, Britton goes out of his way to make it as digestible as he can. He split the book up to show the type of cases he works on and how each requires a different skill set to break apart. For many people living in England a lot of them will be very recognizable. For those outside perhaps not after all each of your countries has cases that spent week s in the news and will be remembered forever. For me, at least the serial killers Fred and Rosemary west is still rattling about in my subconscious. While I was too young to really take any notice of it at the time it is one of those stories that has left a stain that will never go away. The other is that of the Jamie Bulger, it wasn't until reading this book that I realized these two boys who had been turned in the spawn of the devil by the news were in fact around my own ages. A fact that seems to have a very chilling effect on me. In reading their interviews you get a very disturbing insight into these two boys worlds and just how little they cared.

     I fully appreciate this is not a book for everyone, for many it is easier and safe to stay in the world of fiction and for this, I can not blame them. My mind has always been curious so it was this the made me want to pick it up. I have learned a great deal from the time I spent with Britton and you realize that as you walk down the street you may just pass a few people whose minds have gone far from what we might consider normal.  To say this book was enjoyable would be a lie it is however interesting.  It is also a reminder that far too often it is women that are the victims of these crimes and men that are the perpetrators. For me at least I was left feeling horrified by what some people do, It is a slow cold feeling that moves up your spin and I'm sure will stay with me for a very long time.