Katherine Ramsland’s PhD is in philosophy, not criminal justice, though she has an impressive collection of lower degrees:
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I think of Ramsland as primarily a teacher and a writer—a popularizer—of a field she became intrigued by fairly late in her career—the forensic psychology of serious offenders like serial and mass murderers (she earned her MA in forensic psychology 16 years after completing her PhD).
She’s even written books about the supernatural—vampires, witches, ghosts, anything that delve into human and human-adjacent darkness.
I wouldn’t expect Ramsland, a gifted teacher, to look out for psychological pathology in her own students. Of course she looked out for such pathology in her research subjects like Dennis Rader (BTK). One could argue, though, that she
should have look out for red flags in her students since she was aware that some might take her courses to learn to be a better criminal.
The cops in my extended family, unlike Katherine Ramsland, are pragmatic, non-intellectual (though intelligent), and
very suspicious of everyone. They would not last long in their careers without this cynical outlook—it keeps them alive.
I expect that a criminal justice prof who had a prior or concurrent career in law enforcement would easily see red flags in BK’s behavior. But Katherine Ramsland saw none. Remember that BK wanted something from Ramsland, so he manipulated her, just as he did his other female criminal justice professor at DeSales, Dr. Michelle Bolger.
IMO, Katherine Ramsland is intrigued by BK
because she was duped by him. I fully expect her own desire to figure out how he did this will
force her to write about him, regardless of any wish she may harbor for a perhaps final hurrah in her own publishing career.
And don’t forget that at least one
female cop was seemingly duped by BK.
He acted in a polite and curious (though to many, annoying) manner toward the officer who pulled him over for moving into the intersection while attempting to make an unprotected left turn. Of course,
we know BK was lying through his teeth about the non-existence of crosswalks back home in Albrightsville, but the officer didn’t seem alarmed by his behavior or demeanor and did not ticket him. I expect she became far much more suspicious of polite young men after BK was arrested.
Both
Katherine Ramsland and
Michelle Bolger were fooled by BK, but that’s because they saw him as a student, not a perp they were studying. Don’t mistake for one minute what Ramsland will be fooled again by BK now that she knows what he has done.
Unlike cynical, street-weary cops, most of us take people at face value. The women who were afraid of BK or noticed he was “off” are the women he
wanted to frighten or intimidate. BK
knew how to weasel into the affection or regard of the women who could help him, but now they know his number, just like the rest of us.
IMO
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