Interview with Criminal Profiler Mark Safarik

Mark Safarik was one of the most senior and respected members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s elite Behavioral Analysis Unit— the famed profiling unit showcased in the movie Silence of the Lambs and currently in the television series Criminal Minds.

Safarik is an internationally recognized expert in the analysis and interpretation of violent criminal behavior. Serving with distinction for 23 years in the FBI, he spent over half of his career as a behavioral crime analyst in the FBI’s National Center for Analysis of Violent Crime. As one of the senior and most accomplished profilers in the unit, Mr. Safarik led the consultation efforts on many high profile national and international violent crime cases.

He is a member of the Vidocq Society, the prestigious criminological society in Philadelphia that donates their investigative resources to solving cold case homicides. He is well-published in international journals to include, the Journal of Forensic Sciences, International Journal of Homicide Studies, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and has authored chapters on violent crime in a number of professional textbooks.

He has appeared on Dateline, Court TV, Forensic Files, MSNBC and The Discovery Channel to discuss his cases and analyses. His new television series, Killer Instinct premiered September 2011 on the Cloo network. He is a consultant for the popular television series CSI: Las Vegas and Bones and is also the host of Dateline on Cloo.

He is a highly regarded lecturer who has instructed, both in the U.S. and internationally, well over 20,000 law enforcement personnel from Chiefs-of-Police to homicide and violent crime investigators, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges among others.

We discuss his career, profiling and his new show.