PDs use the shotgun approach to providing information, i.e., they provide a large quantity of information, some of which is bound to fit the case. The events predicted by PDs are commonplace events which are predicted by thousands of psychics every year. Shallow graves are likely to be pretty common, too. Wishful thinking accounts for the reputation of some PDs. Another cop considered Dorothy Allison 's clues in a case to be on the money even though she predicted a missing person was dead who was not dead but was living in a religious cult community.
Some psychic successes are merely self-fulfilling prophecies.
Clients find ways to retrofit facts with the vague and ambiguous pronouncements of the psychic. Often, the PD herself or himself is the source of this historical reconstructionism. Memories are molded to fit one's beliefs in what psi-critic D.H. Rawcliffe calls retrospective falsification . In some cases, the PDs have more experience with certain types of crimes than the cops they work with. Communal reinforcement often plays a large role in the reputation of psychic detectives.