Andrés Sotoca Plaza
Andrés Sotoca Plaza is Comandante (Commander) of the Spanish Guardia Civil and Head of the Criminal Behavior Analysis Section (SACD) of the Technical Unit of Judicial Police. He holds a PhD in Clinical, Legal and Forensic Psychology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, with doctoral research on the criminal profile of forest arsonists. He is faculty at Universidad a Distancia de Madrid and at Universidad Blas Pascal (Argentina), and a featured faculty member at Evidentia University
Biography — Andrés Sotoca Plaza
He is Comandante (Commander) of the Spanish Guardia Civil and Head of the Criminal Behavior Analysis Section (Sección de Análisis del Comportamiento Delictivo — SACD) of the Unidad Técnica de Policía Judicial (UTPJ), one of the two Spanish national specialist units for criminal behavior analysis. He directs a team of agents specialized in behavioral analysis, with backgrounds in psychology and criminology, supporting investigations of complex violent crime and working with vulnerable victims.
He holds a PhD in Clinical, Legal and Forensic Psychology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Master's in Clinical and Health Psychology from the same institution. His doctoral research analyzed close to two thousand forest fires to develop a criminal profile of forest arsonists — a methodological contribution of direct operational relevance for Spanish wildfire investigation. His professional expertise includes interviewing of sensitive victims (minors, persons with disabilities, others), testimony credibility assessment, structured interrogation, criminological profiles of identified and unknown perpetrators, psychological autopsies in deaths of equivocal etiology and high-risk disappearances, advisory work on police negotiation, and the preparation of expert reports.
He teaches and lectures at multiple universities: he is Professor at Universidad a Distancia de Madrid (UDIMA) and Professor at Universidad Blas Pascal in Argentina, and is a researcher affiliated with the Behavior & Law Foundation. At Evidentia he is a marquee voice on Behavioral Evidence Analysis applied to Spanish and Spanish-speaking law-enforcement practice.
Areas of expertise
Andrés Sotoca Plaza's work centers on criminal behavior analysis, criminal profiling, forest arson profiling, victim interviewing, police negotiation.
Education and affiliations
Andrés Sotoca Plaza holds Master's in Clinical and Health Psychology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid; PhD in Clinical, Legal and Forensic Psychology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Selected external profiles
Master's programs at Evidentia University
Andrés Sotoca Plaza shares his expertise with Evidentia University of Behavioral and Forensic Sciences as a guest speaker. Explore the Master of Science programs at the heart of our academic community.