# psychics and police work

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-and-police-work/35667>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 4, 2000, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-and-police-work/35667 "2000-10-04T19:37:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![yak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b3f665/32.png) [@yak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yak)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-and-police-work/35667/1 "2000-10-04T19:37:31Z")

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We’ve all heard the stories, but has there even been a documented, hard-evidence case of a psychic being brought in to help police solve a crime, where the psychic actually helped with no prior inside knowledge? As in, the psycic either found the corpse, or predicted the next one, or found the killer, etc.

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-and-police-work/35667/2 "2000-10-04T20:01:38Z")

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[**Rosebud**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=2604) knew you were going to ask that question!

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**Author:** ![egkelly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/db5fbb/32.png) [@egkelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/egkelly)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-and-police-work/35667/3 "2000-10-04T20:53:39Z")

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I recall reading, some years ago, about a Dutch criminologist who did a massive study about these psychics attempting to assist in criminal investigations. His conclusions were that in NOT ONE SINGLE case, did a “psychic” ever provide the location of a body, or ever actually provide evidence leading to apprehension of a perpetrator.  
This pretty much tallies with what I see in the newspapers-these “psychics” are frauds. Any success is probably due to chance.  
Sorry!

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**Author:** ![Rosebud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rosebud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rosebud)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-and-police-work/35667/4 "2000-10-04T21:22:08Z")

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Actually, for a brief second Rosebud thought, “My God, somebody bumped my first ever thread?!” 😉

yak, several people posted several interesting links in the older thread. They’re definitely worth following; one is an article by our own David B.

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**Author:** ![\_Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/e47c2d/32.png) [@\_Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Tim)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2000, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-and-police-work/35667/5 "2000-10-05T00:04:58Z")

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There was a [Cecil’s Mailbag](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpsychiccop.html) article on this topic earlier this year. I’m guessing it was in response to Rosebud’s thread, but it wasn’t linked in there…

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**Author:** ![yak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b3f665/32.png) [@yak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yak)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2000, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychics-and-police-work/35667/6 "2000-10-05T10:27:00Z")

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Oops. Didn’t see the earlier thread. Thanks for pointing it out!