David Canter

David Victor Canter (born 5 January 1944) is a psychologist. He began his career as an architectural psychologist studying the interactions between people and buildings, 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 set up 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 from there in 2018. He is emeritus professor at the University of Liverpool and continues to publish in environmental and crime/forensic psychology.

Canter was a pivotal figure in the creation of the British, 'bottom-up', approach to 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.

Books
(won 1995 Anthony Award for Best True Crime book) (won 1994 Golden Dagger award for True Crime)
 * 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 Science  ISBN 0-85334-590-2
 * The Psychology of Place (1977) Architectural Press ISBN 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-Collins ISBN 1-928704-21-2
 * Criminal Shadows – Inner Narratives of Evil (2000, Paperback) Authorlink ISBN 978-1-928704-21-8
 * Psychology in Action (1996) Dartmouth ISBN 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 Arnold ISBN 978-0-340-92892-9
 * The Faces of Terrorism: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Cross-disciplinary Explorations (ed.) (2009) WileyBlackwell ISBN 978-0-470-75381-1
 * Forensic Psychology: A very short introduction (2010) Oxford University Press ISBN 978-0-19-955020-3 (also translated into Egyptian)
 * Forensic Psychology for Dummies (2012) John Wiley and Sons Ltd ISBN 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 Sir Oliver Popplewell. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-01240-9
 * Fires and Human Behaviour (ed.) (1990) Fulton ISBN 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.). Ashgate ISBN 978-0-7546-2660-2
 * Environmental Psychology; with Bonnes, Mirilia and Hartig, Terry. (28 April 2008) Ashgate ISBN 978-0-7546-2530-8
 * The Investigative Psychology of Serial Killing; with Youngs, Donna. (28 September 2008) Ashgate ISBN 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 Press ISBN 978-0-335-20275-1
 * Biologising the Social Sciences: Challenging Darwininan and Neuroscience Explanations (2014); with Turner, David (Ed.) Routledge ISBN 978-0-415-82480-4