By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

A horrible murder has occurred and a suspect has been arrested.

The television camera crews canvas the neighborhood looking for a neighbor who could give the audience a clue into the alleged killer's background. Every person that the reporter talks to offers the same type of sound bite: "He was a good neighbor, quiet, very normal. I never expected anything like this."

Fayetteville resident Dr. Gregory Moffatt doesn't believe this and his new book, "Blind-Sided: Homicide Where It Is Least Expected," debunks this myth.

Moffatt's book addresses murder by people who appear normal and seem to have a history of nonviolence, as well as the psychological issues involved in homicide and how recent murders may have been prevented or interrupted. He uses several cases such as the Columbine tragedy and the Mark Barton killings and draws parallels, pointing out the warning signs that presented themselves in all of the cases and what could have been done to stop them.

"It is a form of risk assessment," Moffatt explains. "We are all at risk. The question is by what percentage. No one warning sign proves anything, but it could lead one to use more caution around that person."

Moffatt is a psychologist and college professor who writes a monthly column for The Citizen. His interest in this topic started in the early 1990s when he was vice president of student life at Atlanta Christian College. A student was being stalked and her perpetrator was somebody that Moffatt knew and had felt was a risk.

He spent over a year researching warning signs and "how he knew" and wrote an article. The article was eventually passed on to the head of Corporate Security at Delta, who was formerly the head of the FBI. The article lead to Moffatt lecturing at the Academy on topics ranging from "violence in the work place" to "violent behavior - a bio-psychosocial approach."

Moffatt also has given these lectures and many like them to community groups, churches and Rotary clubs. The topic is interesting to a wide audience. There are people who worry about their safety and wish to hear these lectures to keep themselves and their families safe and there are also people who have seen "The Silence of The Lambs" and similar shows and are interested in profiling killers.

The book, his first, is getting great reviews from writers who have covered similar topics. Gavin DeBecker, author of "The Gift of Fear," writes that "Moffatt confirms that like every creature on Earth, we can receive warnings before violence. You may not agree with every word he writes, but you will get a clear and compelling understanding of homicide from a master observer of human behavior."

The process of writing the book was fairly easy for Moffatt, as the research had all been done earlier and he knew the topic well and had lectured on it so much. He also has a second book in the works, delving into the deeper issues of profiling.

Some forms of violence are down at this time, but mass murders are more common. Moffatt attributes this to the fact that people see themselves as victims and do not take responsibility for their actions they model themselves after other killers and, though he is certainly not advocating gun control, weapon availability also plays a role.

The book lays out ways to prevent these killings and ways to not be a victim. Moffatt explains that a failure to attend to the warning signs leads to tragedies like Columbine.

"The shooters at Columbine showed many signs to a lot of people, who never put it all together to get the full picture," Moffatt said. "When we see them all laid out afterwards, we wonder how anyone could have missed it. To prevent these things from happening in the future, we need to see the signs and act early."

Moffatt discussed his findings and how to prevent school shootings with state school Superintendent Linda Schrenko before writing this book. He suggests a change in the culture and having zero tolerance for threats. "If you don't allow people to say things like, 'I'm going to kill you,' you don't have to differentiate whether it is a serious threat or not."

As for pop culture, Moffatt doesn't believe it causes people to do things but it does "fertilize a culture of aggression." "Violence in the media desensitizes children, presents ideas that young people might not have otherwise, glamorizes those ideas and disconnects those ideas from consequences."

Moffatt has many interesting ideas and is very familiar with his material. His book should be successful because of people's growing interest in keeping themselves safe in today's increasingly violent society. When one turns on the news, someone else has become a victim of a violent crime and that person could be anyone of us if the circumstances were different.

"People sometimes get a gut feeling about someone else. They feel uncomfortable around them or they are afraid, but they do not know why," Moffatt said. "This book will help let you know if those fears are justified."

It is written for a general audience and does not use extensive technical terms or jargon. The book was released in early October and has been doing very well.

"Blind-Sided: Homicide Where It Is Least Expected" is available in some bookstores now. It is published by Praeger Publishing and can be purchased on Amazon.com.

For information on the book, visit www.greenwood.com or Moffatt's web site, www.mpconsultation.com.

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