"The NCAVC's role . .. is to serve as a law enforcement clearinghouse and resource center for the most baffling and fearful of the unsolved violent crimes . ... "
Science Unit and physically located at the FBI Academy. It was to be a law enforcement-oriented behavioral science and data processing resource center to consolidate research, training, and consultation functions for the purpose of providing assistance to Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies who were confronted with unusual, bizarre, and/or particularly vicious or repetitive violent crime.
Speaking at the National Sheriffs Association Annual Conference in Hart ford, CT, on June 21, 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced the establishment of the NCAVC with the primary mission of identifying and tracking repeat killers.9 It was described as a joint project of the Department of Justice and the FBI.
In June 1984, the NCAVC was given life as a pilot project supported with NIJ funds furnished by way of an interagency agreement between the NIJ and the FBI. In October 1985, the total cost of funding the center was absorbed in the annual budget of the FBI.
As it was originally conceived, the NCAVC consisted of four programs Research and Development, Training, Profiling and Consultation, and VICAP. These four basic programs constituted the backbone of the NCAVC and continue to exist today; however, the FBI has found it administratively feasible to divide the programs within two Behavioral Science Units.
In January 1986, the original Behavioral Science Unit which administered the NCAVC was split into two units, with each unit responsible for the administration of two of the four NCAVC programs. The Behavioral Science Instruction and Research (BSIR) Unit continues the traditional training functions of the original Behavioral Science Unit, as well as administers the Research and Development and the Training Programs of the NCAVC . The Behavioral Science Investigative Support (BSIS) Unit administers the Profiling and Consultation and the Violent Criminal Apprehension Programs of the NCAVC. The chief of the BSIR is the administrator and the chief of the BSIS is the deputy administrator. The organizational chart of the NCAVC is set out in figure 1.
The overall goal has been to reduce the amount of violent crime in American society. The NCAVC's role in this regard is to serve as a law enforcement clearinghouse and resource center for the most baffling and fearful of the unsolved violent crimes, such as homicide, for cible rape, child molestation/abduction, and arson. The NCAVC collects and analyzes violent crime data and provides assistance to law enforcement agencies in their attempts to identify, locate, apprehend, prosecute, and incarcerate the persons responsible for these and other violent crimes and to develop new programs for the prevention of violent crime victimization.
The NCAVC represents a new and powerful weapon in the law enforcement arsenal to combat violent crime. Its research efforts are bringing forth new insights into violent criminal behavior and personality. Its training programs are disseminating the latest violent crime information and investigative techniques. More and more cases are being successfully analyzed, and criminal profiles are being constructed with remarkable accuracy. Imaginative investigative and prosecutive strategies are being developed, resulting in earlier detection and arrest and more-certain conviction and confinement. VICAP is operating to link unsolved violent crimes to one another from throughout the country and to provide assistance in the coordination of complex interagency investigations. The latest advancements in computer engineering are being applied to violent crime problems with promising results.
The concerted efforts of the U.S. Congress, the Department of Justice, and Federal, State, and local criminal justice agencies to bring violent crime under control have made a difference in America. They have contributed to slowing the downward spiral and increasing the risk for the violent offender. The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime was born out of these national efforts and represents the new feeling in America. We are not only going to fight back-we are going to win.
Footnotes
- 1 Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crime in the United States—1984 (Washington . DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1985).
- 2 James Q. Wilson, Thinking About Crime (New York: Basic Books, 1975), p. 5.
- 3 Supra note 1.
- 4 R. M. Holmes and J. E. DeBurger, "Profiles in Terror: The Serial Murderer," Federal Probation, vol. 49, 1985, pp. 29–34.
- 5 Final Report of the Presidents Task Force on Victims of Crime, by L. H. Herrington, Chairperson (Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Report No. 82-24146) (Washington, DC: The White House, 1982), p . vi.
- 6Report of Attorney General's Task Force on Violent Crime, Washington, DC, 1981.
- 7 "Crime Scene and Profile Characteristics of Organized and Disorganized Murderers: FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, vol. 54, No. 8, August 1985, pp.18–25.
- 8 U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Patterns of Murders Committed by One Person, in Large Numbers with No Apparent Rhyme, Reason, or Motivation. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary, 98th Congress, 1st sess., June 1983, (Serial No. J-98-52) (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office).
- 9 B. T. Roessner, "President Extols 'War on Crime,' "The Hartford Courant, June 21, 1984, pp. A1, A14.
