David Canter


David Victor Canter is a British psychologist known for his contributions to the field of architectural psychology over multiple decades, beginning in the late 1960s. He is currently emeritus professor at the University of Liverpool, publishing in the fields of environmental and forensic psychology.
Canter was a pivotal figure in the creation of the British, 'bottom-up', approach to criminal profiling. This approach uses the evidence left at the crime scene and witness testimony to create a profile of the offender to help with criminal investigations.

Career

He began his career in the late 1960s as an architectural psychologist, publishing and providing consultancy on the designs of offices, schools, prisons, housing and other building forms, as well as exploring how people made sense of the large scale environment, notably cities. He established the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 1980.
His work in architecture led to studies of human reactions in fires and other emergencies. He wrote about investigative psychology in Britain. He helped police in 1985 on the Railway Rapist case.
He was the professor of psychology at the University of Surrey for ten years, where he developed investigative psychology, described in detail in Investigative Psychology: Offender Profiling and the Analysis of Criminal Action and a course curriculum. He set up and was director of the Centre For Investigative Psychology, which is based at the University of Liverpool. From 2009 he was at the University of Huddersfield, where he directed the International Research Centre in Investigative Psychology. He retired in 2018.

Books

  • The Study of Meaning in Architecture Publisher: D.V. Canter
  • Scales for the Evaluation of Buildings Strathclyde University
  • People and Buildings: A Brief Overview of Research Council of Planning Librarians
  • Psychology for Architects London: Applied Science
  • The Psychology of Place Architectural Press
  • Studies of Human Behavior in Fire: Empirical Results and Their Implications for Education and Design University of Surrey
  • Criminal Shadows: Inside the Mind of the Serial Killer Harper-Collins

  • Criminal Shadows – Inner Narratives of Evil Authorlink
  • Psychology in Action Dartmouth
  • Mapping Murder: The Secrets of Geographical Profiling Virgin Books.
  • Criminal Psychology: Topics in Applied Psychology Hodder Arnold
  • The Faces of Terrorism: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Cross-disciplinary Explorations WileyBlackwell
  • Forensic Psychology: A very short introduction Oxford University Press
  • Forensic Psychology for Dummies John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Collaborations
  • Architectural Psychology
  • Psychology and the Built Environment
  • Environmental Interaction: Psychological Approaches to Our Physical Surroundings
  • Designing for Therapeutic Environments: A Review of Research
  • Psychology in Practice: Perspectives on Professional Psychology
  • Facet Theory: Approaches to Social Research
  • The Research Interview: Uses and Approaches
  • Environmental Social Psychology
  • Environmental Perspectives
  • Environmental Policy, Assessment and Communication
  • New Directions in Environmental Participation
  • Football in its Place: An Environmental Psychology of Football Grounds . Introduction by Sir Oliver Popplewell. Taylor & Francis.
  • Fires and Human Behaviour Fulton
  • Empirical Approaches to Social Representations ; with Breakwell, Glynis. Oxford University Press.
  • Criminal Detection and the Psychology of Crime ; with Alison, Laurence. Aldershot: Ashgate/Dartmouth.
  • Interviewing and Deception – Offender Profiling Series, Vol. I ; with Alison, Laurence. Aldershot: Ashgate.
  • Profiling in Policy and Practice – Offender Profiling Series, Vol. II ; with Alison, Laurence. Aldershot: Ashgate.
  • The Social Psychology of Crime: Groups, Teams and Networks – Offender Profiling Series, Vol. III ; with Alison, Laurence. Aldershot: Ashgate.
  • Profiling Property Crime – Offender Profiling Series, Vol. IV ; with Alison, Laurence. Alderhost: Ashgate.
  • Profiling Rape and Murder – Offender Profiling Series, Vol. V ; with Alison, Laurence. Alderhost: Ashgate.
  • Profiling: Principles, Processes, Practicalities ; with Keppel, Robert. London: Prentice Hall.
  • Psychology and Law: Bridging the Gap ; with Zukauskiene, Rita. Ashgate
  • Environmental Psychology; with Bonnes, Mirilia and Hartig, Terry. Ashgate
  • The Investigative Psychology of Serial Killing; with Youngs, Donna. Ashgate
  • Investigative Psychology: Offender Profiling and the Analysis of Criminal Action ; with Youngs, Donna. John Wiley and Sons.
  • Becoming an Author: Advice for Academics and Professionals ; with Fairbairn, Gavin. Open University Press
  • Biologising the Social Sciences: Challenging Darwininan and Neuroscience Explanations ; with Turner, David Routledge