This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) A major contributor to this article appears to have aclose connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularlyneutral point of view. Please discuss further on thetalk page.(December 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "David Canter" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

David Victor Canter (born 5 January 1944) is a British psychologist^[1] known for his contributions to the field ofarchitectural psychology over multiple decades, beginning in the late 1960s. He is currently emeritus professor at theUniversity of Liverpool, publishing in the fields ofenvironmental andforensic psychology.^{[citation needed]}

Canter was a pivotal figure in the creation^{[citation needed]} of the British, 'bottom-up'^{[clarification needed]}, approach to criminal profiling.^[2] 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.^[2]

He began his career^[when?] 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 theJournal of Environmental Psychology in 1980.

His work in architecture led to studies of human reactions in fires and other emergencies. He wrote aboutinvestigative psychology in Britain. He helped police in 1985 on theRailway Rapist case.

He was the professor of psychology at theUniversity of Surrey for ten years, where he developed investigative psychology, described in detail inInvestigative 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 theUniversity of Huddersfield, where he directed the International Research Centre in Investigative Psychology. He retired in 2018.

• The Study of Meaning in Architecture (1968) Publisher: D.V. Canter
• Scales for the Evaluation of Buildings (1971) Strathclyde University
• People and Buildings: A Brief Overview of Research (1972) Council of Planning Librarians
• Psychology for Architects (1974) London: Applied ScienceISBN 0-85334-590-2
• The Psychology of Place (1977) Architectural PressISBN 0-85139-532-5
• Studies of Human Behavior in Fire: Empirical Results and Their Implications for Education and Design (1983) University of Surrey
• Criminal Shadows: Inside the Mind of the Serial Killer (1994) Harper-CollinsISBN 1-928704-21-2
  (won 1995 Anthony Award for Best True Crime book)^[3](won 1994 Golden Dagger award for True Crime)
• Criminal Shadows – Inner Narratives of Evil (2000, Paperback) AuthorlinkISBN 978-1-928704-21-8
• Psychology in Action (1996) DartmouthISBN 1-85521-365-6
• Mapping Murder: The Secrets of Geographical Profiling (2003) Virgin Books.ISBN 1-85227-078-0
• Criminal Psychology: Topics in Applied Psychology (Topics Applied Psychology) (27 June 2008) Hodder ArnoldISBN 978-0-340-92892-9
• The Faces of Terrorism: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Cross-disciplinary Explorations (ed.) (2009) WileyBlackwellISBN 978-0-470-75381-1
• Forensic Psychology: A very short introduction (2010) Oxford University PressISBN 978-0-19-955020-3 (also translated into Egyptian)
• Forensic Psychology for Dummies (2012) John Wiley and Sons LtdISBN 978-1-119-97738-4(ebk)

Collaborations

• Architectural Psychology (ed.) (1970)
• Psychology and the Built Environment (1974) (ed. with Terence Lee.)ISBN 978-0-470-52149-6
• Environmental Interaction: Psychological Approaches to Our Physical Surroundings (1975) (ed. with P. Stringer)ISBN 978-0-8236-1685-5
• Designing for Therapeutic Environments: A Review of Research (ed. with S. Canter) (1979)
• Psychology in Practice: Perspectives on Professional Psychology (ed. with S. Canter) (1982)
• Facet Theory: Approaches to Social Research (ed.) (1985)
• The Research Interview: Uses and Approaches (ed. M. Brenner and J. Brown) (1985)
• Environmental Social Psychology (ed. with J.C. Jesuino, L. Soczka and G.M. Stephenson) (1988)
• Environmental Perspectives (ed. with M. Krampen and D. Stea) (1988)
• Environmental Policy, Assessment and Communication (ed. with M. Krampen and D. Stea) (1988)
• New Directions in Environmental Participation (ed. with M. Krampen and D. Stea) (1988)
• Football in its Place: An Environmental Psychology of Football Grounds (with Miriam Comber and David L. Uzzell) (1989). Introduction by SirOliver Popplewell. Taylor & Francis.ISBN 978-0-415-01240-9
• Fires and Human Behaviour (ed.) (1990) FultonISBN 1-85346-105-9
• Empirical Approaches to Social Representations (1993); with Breakwell, Glynis. Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-852181-2
• Criminal Detection and the Psychology of Crime (1997); with Alison, Laurence. Aldershot: Ashgate/Dartmouth.ISBN 1-85521-454-7
• Interviewing and Deception – Offender Profiling Series, Vol. I (1998); with Alison, Laurence. Aldershot: Ashgate.ISBN 1-85521-380-X
• Profiling in Policy and Practice – Offender Profiling Series, Vol. II (1999); with Alison, Laurence. Aldershot: Ashgate.ISBN 1-84014-782-2
• The Social Psychology of Crime: Groups, Teams and Networks – Offender Profiling Series, Vol. III (2000); with Alison, Laurence. Aldershot: Ashgate.ISBN 1-84014-497-1
• Profiling Property Crime – Offender Profiling Series, Vol. IV (2000); with Alison, Laurence. Alderhost: Ashgate.ISBN 1-84014-787-3
• Profiling Rape and Murder – Offender Profiling Series, Vol. V (2008); with Alison, Laurence. Alderhost: Ashgate.ISBN 1-84014-495-5
• Profiling: Principles, Processes, Practicalities (2008); with Keppel, Robert. London: Prentice Hall.ISBN 0-13-119276-0
• Psychology and Law: Bridging the Gap (Psychology, Crime and Law) (Ed.) (2008); with Zukauskiene, Rita (Ed.). AshgateISBN 978-0-7546-2660-2
• Environmental Psychology; with Bonnes, Mirilia and Hartig, Terry. (28 April 2008) AshgateISBN 978-0-7546-2530-8
• The Investigative Psychology of Serial Killing; with Youngs, Donna. (28 September 2008) AshgateISBN 978-0-7546-2548-3
• Investigative Psychology: Offender Profiling and the Analysis of Criminal Action (3 October 2008, Paperback); with Youngs, Donna. John Wiley and Sons.ISBN 978-0-470-02397-6
• Becoming an Author: Advice for Academics and Professionals (2006); with Fairbairn, Gavin. Open University PressISBN 978-0-335-20275-1
• Biologising the Social Sciences: Challenging Darwininan and Neuroscience Explanations (2014); with Turner, David (Ed.) RoutledgeISBN 978-0-415-82480-4

• Official web site
• Crimelibrary.com

• 1944 births
• Living people
• Academics of the University of Surrey
• Anthony Award winners
• British criminologists
• Forensic psychologists
• Offender profiling

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Wikipedia articles with possible conflicts of interest from December 2024
• BLP articles lacking sources from December 2024
• All BLP articles lacking sources
• Articles with multiple maintenance issues
• Use dmy dates from July 2021
• Articles with hCards
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from September 2023
• Articles with unsourced statements from December 2024
• Wikipedia articles needing clarification from February 2025
• All articles with vague or ambiguous time
• Vague or ambiguous time from December 2024