Dr. Jeffrey Smalldon

Certainly not at the level of intensity you experience while you're actually going through the encounter, either with the

the suspect or with the crime scene itself.

If you were walking around with that in your head all the time, you'd have a hard time functioning.

But you did bring up one interesting point, I think, at least implicitly, and that's

You know, you deal with these people.

It would be nice if they all look like Charles Manson because we would all go to immediately turn and run.

But most of them don't.

Most of them are very well camouflaged.

They've got a carefully curated social persona.

And I did think frequently over the years about the relatively superficial cues that all of us use every day.

And, you know, it seems like a nice guy, nothing the least bit threatening, easy to talk to.

And a lot of people rely on those cues to put themselves in positions where they would be potentially very vulnerable to a predator, for example, a Gacy or a Bundy.

That's certainly how I thought about my interviews with even some of the most horrible people on the planet.

One of the things, and not every forensic psychologist would agree with me on this approach, but I always tried to establish a very horizontal relationship with whoever I was talking with.

Never wanted to come across as the expert looking down on someone.

Always tried to make it conversational.

I always introduced myself as Jeff, not Dr. Smeldon.

Gave them my business card.

They could see who I was.

Their attorneys told them they knew I was a psychologist.