sional journals, including the special issue of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin in August 1985. Results of the rape study will be published in the near future.
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Current Research
The function of the Research and Development Program in the NCAVC is to generate interest in research, provide administrative support for approved research projects, and to assure that the results are consistent with the methodology.
The studies of violent offenders and violent crimes are not the only projects that the NCAVC has conducted. In 1985, a rape survey was completed which inquired into the attitudes of police toward rape. Police are often depicted in popular literature as insensitive or even hostile to rape victims. The results of the study on police attitudes toward rape determined that police are not insensitive to the plight of rape victims. Moreover, police strongly view rape as a serious crime deserving severe punishment. The value of this study is found in the contribution of empirical research that corrects popular misconceptions and reveals what the police themselves think about other aspects of the criminal justice system which prosecutes the offenders.
Another research project accomplished by the NCAVC involved an inquiry into risk-taking and life experience stress by police officers. The purpose of the study was to ascertain the relationship of recent life experiences—such as divorce, marriage, change of environment—and load stress to risk-taking. Among the results, the researcher found that even though police officers with greater negative life experiences (divorce, death in the family, etc.) took more risks, they did not necessarily fail to achieve their goal more. That is, they may take more risks to achieve a goal, but those risks will not necessarily result in failure.
Still other important research in cludes studies on arson. The capability exists in the NCAVC to analyze multiple arsons. One NCAVC member developed a computer-assisted system to collect, organize, and analyze information that is important in the evaluation of multiple arson cases. Called the Arson Information Management System (AIMS), it provides computer assistance to fire departments and police to help them develop strategies to predict and prevent multiple incendiary crimes. The latest application of computer analysis of arson is set out in a study based on information received from the Prince Georges County, MD, Fire Department. The results of the study provide significant information on profiles of offenders and their motives for the offenses. Providing the law enforcement community accurate information about motives of perpetrators enables investigators to conduct logical, motive-based investigations. The importance of this type of accurate information cannot be overstated, and the results of these studies will be published in future issues of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin.
