Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU)
Definition
The FBI unit, descended from the BSU, that provides behavioural evidence analysis support to homicide, sexual assault, terrorism, and threat-assessment investigations in the US and internationally.
- Agency
- FBI
- Predecessor
- Behavioral Science Unit (BSU)
- Scope
- Homicide, sexual assault, terrorism, threat assessment
- Reach
- Supports investigations in the US and internationally
Common questions
How does the BAU differ from the original BSU it descended from?+
The BSU, founded in the 1970s, was primarily a training and early profiling research unit. The BAU that succeeded it is organised into specialised subunits covering distinct crime categories and operates as an active investigative-support arm rather than a purely academic or training function.
Does the BAU replace local investigative work, or supplement it?+
It supplements. The BAU provides behavioural evidence analysis, such as a profile or interview strategy, to the investigating agency, which retains ownership of the case and decides how to weigh that analysis against its own evidence.
Related terms
- Criminal Investigative Analysis (CIA)
- The FBI BSU's formal method for profiling unknown offenders from crime-scene evidence, involving a structured analytical process that produces an offender description...
- ENFSI IP Working Group
- The European Network of Forensic Science Institutes Investigative Psychology Working Group, which sets standards for behavioural analysis practice across EU member states,...
- Equivocal Forensic Analysis
- The first stage of Behavioral Evidence Analysis (BEA), in which the analyst reviews all physical evidence without assumption about the offender to...
- Investigative Psychology
- David Canter's empirically grounded approach to behavioural analysis, using multivariate statistical methods and systematic case comparison rather than clinical inference from interview-based...
- Organised vs Disorganised Typology
- The BSU classification of sexually motivated murderers based on planning, victim selection, scene control, and evidence removal; original binary; later refined to...
- ViCAP
- The FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, a national database established in 1985 for the comparison and linkage of violent crime cases across...