Investigating Cults and Understanding Cult Behavior

 

This course will be modified to the level of expertise in the audience and can be adapted in the classroom for multiple levels of experience and understanding.

 

Training Goals and Objectives

The goal of the training program is to prepare the Investigator and Investigative Supervisor to conduct criminal investigative analysis, general profiling and criminal profiling techniques.

 

The course will be directed at a multi agency approach to criminal investigation, specifically. Several areas will be addressed; each area by it self is an area of expertise requiring detailed individual course instruction.

 

In addition, the course will include an intense overview of criminal behaviour and the understanding of behaviour as it relates to the traditional forms of evidence, i.e., forensic, circumstantial, eye-witness and confession.

Training Audience, Format and Content

This course is intended for various experience investigators, evidence technicians, supervisors, and prosecution attorneys. It also has great value to the patrol officer and new recruit.  The intent of the trainers is to bridge the learning gap obtained throughout a law enforcement career in the area of evaluating crime scenes and help the less experienced officer/investigator to avoid many of the mistakes and pitfalls experience by veteran officers as they progressed in their individual careers.

 

This course is most successful when taught and received with audiences of 50 officers or fewer, but has been given in groups of 400 or more with successful reviews.  The smaller groups enable officers to have more direct dialog with the instructors and the other students.

 

The course is designed in a 2 day session. The course is generally designed to run from 0830 to 1630 hours daily.

 

The outline for the class is as follows:

Day One:

·         Definition of Cults, Secular – Christian – and the ‘‘Orthodox     Bible-Based Cult’’

·         Identifying Cultic and “Closed Society” Groups

·         Group Personality of Elitism, Unique Causes and Special Ministries

·         How Do They Do It?

·         Heaven’s Gate Case Review

·         Common Abuses (Individuality, Intimacy, Finances and more)

·         Abuse Results (Personality Changes, Loss of Identity)

·         What Kind of Person Falls for these Groups?

·         The “Zion Society” Case Review

Day Two:

·         Can They Be Dangerous?

·         The Lafferty Brothers Murder Spree (Case Review)

·         Looking at Other Dangerous Cultic Groups

·         Group Construction (Convert versus Generational Groups)

·         Recruitment

·         Issues Surrounding Interviewing Members and Potential Victims

·         Dealing with the Group Leadership

·         Solutions and Recommendations

There are no pre –requisites to this course.

 

Evaluation       The evaluation process is achieved by class participation. (only)

 

Cost: (2) two day course consisting of two (8) hour days:  

 

TRAINING AIDS / MATERIALS TO BE USED OR PROVIDED TO PARTICIPANTS 

Student materials will involve copies of “Analyzing Criminal Behavior II”, Cooper/King, IQ Publishing, 2001 and in certain situations, “Victimology”, King/Cooper, IQ Publishing, 2002

 

In addition, the instructors will supply the student with copies of the FBI ViCAP form and other pertinent information to include their own copy written investigative forms dealing with Victimology Assessment, Offender and Offender Risk Assessment, Evaluating the Initial Contact Site, the Crime Scene and the Disposal Site as well as 6 other Major Case Investigative forms.

 

Depending on student understanding, a wide range of video, audio and PowerPoint presentations will be used in the training session, and the instructors will come prepared with everything they will need to make this an informative, fast-paced learning experience.  The materials will range from commercially driven video to personal interviews conducted by the instructors with some of America’s most dangerous murders, rapists and violent offenders.

 

Detailed lesson plans are available as needed, but copies of the PowerPoint presentations and crime scene photographs cannot be supplied with this document.

 

Students are requested to bring active / cold case investigations involving homicide / rape / questionable death as they will apply learned profiling filters, directly to their case during Case Review. This will enable them to leave the course with knowledge and an actual working product.

 

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