Geoprofiling -- the science of predicting where criminals live
based on where they commit crimes -- was transformed this year
from an academic novelty into a mainstream crime-fighting
technique. It is now used by Scotland Yard, the F.B.I., the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the A.T.F. and others to solve
apparent serial crimes. Kim Rossmo, the former police detective
from Vancouver, British Columbia, who invented it, flew more
than 100,000 miles in 2001 to consult on various high-profile
investigations. He has advised on everything from serial murders
in New York to serial rapes in Louisiana.  The theory of
geoprofiling was first articulated in Rossmo's Ph.D. thesis --
but it didn't take long to be put into practice. On the very day
in 1995 that Rossmo defended his thesis, two young girls were
attacked by an unknown man in the town of Abbotsford, not far
from Vancouver. Both girls were sexually assaulted. One was
killed. A series of 911 calls followed in which the killer
taunted police from five different pho