Gazette - Crawling inside the criminal mind

Q & A

Lessons learned from a criminal investigative psychologist

He has penetrated the psyches of countless psychopaths, pedophiles and hostage takers. He has spent time in the jail system assessing predatory sex offenders. He is one of only 17 people in North America who are both police officers and qualified psychologists, and one of even fewer who specialize in the criminal mind. S/Sgt Matt Logan, the RCMP’s first criminal investigative psychologist, speaks with the Gazette ’s Caroline Ross about his work.

As a criminal investigative psychologist with the RCMP, one of S/Sgt Matt Logan’s roles is to identify emotional hooks, psychopathology and passivity in interview subjects.

What was your most intense case?

The one that is most traumatic is when a hostage taker killed a hostage in front of me. I was the negotiator, and that was my first (negotiation). That was 1988. It wasn’t a good introduction to hostage negotiation, but it moved me to take my Masters Degree (in psychology) at the University of Victoria. I recognized that this was a psychotic individual, and I had no understanding of what was going on with that individual. I felt kind of hand-cuffed (by my lack of knowledge).

How did you move into the position of criminal investigative psychologist?

I had finished my Masters degree. I came to Ottawa on a three-year tour of duty. The SEC (RCMP Senior Executive Committee) at the time, after Gustafson Lake, said, “Do we not have anybody in the RCMP that has an advanced degree in psychology that can help us deal with another Gustafson Lake or another major incident?”* They figured at that time that we’d be having major incidents all the time. So they said, “Would you go back and do your PhD?” and I said, “Sure.”

What is your main role within the RCMP?

It’s dissected into a number of assist or consultative roles, and probably working with major crime cases is the largest part of that right now. One of the roles is to look at cold cases — unsolved — look at the subjects of interest in those cases, and determine which of those suspects is the most likely to have committed the crime based on the mindset of the individual and the various personality factors.

What factors help you make an assessment?

For instance, if we know that the person is pyschopathic (psychopathy is determined by a diagnostic procedure that psychologists are specially trained to administer), we can say a lot about the personality features, the level of violence, the gratuitous nature of the violence. Then we can look at a crime and how it was committed, when it was committed, what was the context of the crime and make a determination of whether this might be a pyschopathic offender that committed that crime.

You do a lot of work with interview teams. What is your role there?

I sit in a room with a live feed and watch and give consult to the interviewers. I’m advising them on what I’m seeing of the mindset, what I’m seeing of the psychological makeup, what I’m seeing for emotional hooks that we can use (to build a firmer relationship), what I’m seeing about the relationship-building that is going on or not going on. I’m also watching for passivity, to make sure we’re not taking a false confession.

You spent two years providing therapy to predatory sex offenders in the British Columbia prison system. What lessons did you bring back?

I learned so much about offenders, about offender mentality and what the needs of the offender are. Knowing your offender mentality is helpful in so many cases. It’s especially important with the undercover team that we know the needs of the target. Is his primary need power? Ego? Greed? Those are the big three. If you can tell me that his biggest need is greed and his second is power and his third is ego, then I’ll be able to tell you how we’re best able to capture his needs and further the undercover project.

* In 1995, failed negotiations to end a land occupation at Gustafson Lake, B.C., resulted in one of the largest police interventions in Canadian history.