FBI BAU
Definition
Behavioral Analysis Unit at the FBI Academy, Quantico, evolved from the Behavioral Science Unit set up by Howard Teten and Pat Mullany in 1972; pioneers Robert Ressler, John Douglas, Roy Hazelwood.
- Location
- FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia
- Predecessor
- Behavioral Science Unit, founded 1972
- Founders
- Howard Teten and Pat Mullany
- Notable profilers
- Robert Ressler, John Douglas, Roy Hazelwood
Common questions
What does the BAU actually do day to day, beyond the profiling shown in fiction?+
Its agents primarily provide consultative support to field investigators: behavioral assessments of unsolved violent crimes, threat assessment for targeted violence, interview strategy advice and testimony preparation. Direct suspect interrogation by BAU staff is far less common than crime-drama portrayals suggest.
How did the unit evolve from the original Behavioral Science Unit into today's BAU?+
The Behavioral Science Unit split and reorganized over the 1990s and 2000s as caseload grew, separating training, research and operational support into distinct units under the broader Behavioral Analysis Unit structure, which now covers crimes against adults, children and counterterrorism separately.
Related terms
- BEOS
- Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature profiling, developed by Champadi Raman Mukundan and validated 2003 at NIMHANS Bangalore; uses 32-channel EEG to classify probes...
- CQT
- Control Question Test (Reid/Keeler technique): compares physiological response to relevant questions with response to control (probable-lie) questions; the dominant US polygraph format.
- Criminal Profiling
- The inference of an unknown offender's likely characteristics from crime scene behaviour, victimology, and case details. Also called offender profiling, criminal investigative...
- GKT / CIT
- Guilty Knowledge Test, also called Concealed Information Test (Lykken, 1959): tests whether the subject recognises crime-specific details only the perpetrator would know;...
- Modus Operandi
- How the offender commits the crime: the functional behaviour needed to complete it; evolves with experience and feedback.
- Narco-Analysis
- A technique in which a subject is administered a barbiturate or benzodiazepine drug (commonly sodium pentothal or midazolam) to induce a hypnotic...
- Organised vs Disorganised
- The BSU dichotomy proposed by Ressler and Douglas, classifying offenders by scene presentation. Organised scenes show planning; disorganised scenes show chaos. The...
- P300
- Event-related brain potential occurring about 300 ms after a meaningful stimulus; Lawrence Farwell's 'Brain Fingerprinting' uses P300 amplitude to flag concealed recognition...
- Polygraph
- An instrument that simultaneously records multiple physiological channels including blood pressure, respiration rate, galvanic skin response, and sometimes heart rate while the...
- Signature
- Psychologically expressive behaviours that go beyond what's needed to complete the offence: posing the body, ritual acts, taking trophies, leaving messages. Signature...
- Sodium Pentothal
- Sodium thiopental, an ultra-short-acting barbiturate; intravenous infusion at a slow drip lowers cortical inhibition and is the standard agent for narco-analysis.