ABSTRACT
The FBI’s initial project on serial murder began in 1978.17,55 The impetus for the project was to conduct personal interviews with serial murderers about their crimes in order to find out how they were successful at avoiding capture. 55 The FBI serial murder project was given added attention in Washington, D.C. in the early 1980s due to public outcry of the murder of a six-year-old boy in Florida by a serial murderer. 17 Therefore, due to public pressure, the FBI serial murder project was brought to the forefront and given the necessary U.S. government funding, which eventually lead to a unit being established in Quantico, Virginia called the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU). In 1995, a restructuring phase combined the Behavioral Science Unit, Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP) , and the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime into one unit, calling it the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG). 56
