Page:FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 55 (12).pdf/7

 "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. FBI

December 1986 / 5