Robert Ressler
Encyclopedia
Robert K. Ressler is a former FBI
agent and author
. He played a significant role in the psychological profiling
of violent offenders in the 1970s and is often credited with coining the English term "serial killer
".
He served in the U.S. Army
before joining the FBI in 1970. Ressler was recruited into the Behavioral Science Unit
that deals with drawing up psychological profiles of violent offenders who typically select victims at random, such as rapists and serial killers.
In the early 1980s, Ressler helped to organize the interviews of thirty-six incarcerated serial killers in order to find parallels between such criminals' backgrounds and motives. He was also instrumental in setting up Vi-CAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). This consists of a centralized computer database of information on unsolved homicides. Information is gathered from local police forces and cross-referenced with other unsolved killings across the United States
. Working on the basis that most serial killers claim similar victims with a standard method (modus operandi) it hopes to spot early on when a killer is carrying out crimes in different jurisdictions. This was primarily a response to the appearance of nomadic killers who committed crimes in different areas. So long as the killer kept on the move, the police forces in each state would be unaware that there were multiple victims and would just be investigating a single homicide each, unaware that other police forces had similar crimes. Vi-CAP would help individual police forces determine if they were hunting for the same perpetrator so that they could share and correlate information with one another, increasing their chances of identifying a suspect.
He worked on many cases of serial homicide such as Jeffrey Dahmer
and Richard Chase
.
Ressler retired from the FBI in 1990 and is the author of a number of books about serial murder. He is active giving lectures to students and police forces on the subject of criminology, and in 1993 was brought in to London
to assist in the investigation into the murders committed by Colin Ireland
.
Ressler's visit to Ciudad Juárez
(in Mexico
) to investigate the still-active femicides
occurring there served as inspiration for the character Albert Kessler in Roberto Bolaño's
novel 2666.
Robert Ressler defined the words serial killer as 'someone who kills for personal gratification'
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
agent and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. He played a significant role in the psychological profiling
Offender profiling
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to profile unknown criminal subjects or offenders. Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling,...
of violent offenders in the 1970s and is often credited with coining the English term "serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
".
He served in the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
before joining the FBI in 1970. Ressler was recruited into the Behavioral Science Unit
Behavioral Science Unit
The Behavioral Science Unit is one of the instructional components of the FBI's Training Division at Quantico, Virginia. Its mission is to develop and provide programs of training, research, and consultation in the behavioral and social sciences for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and law...
that deals with drawing up psychological profiles of violent offenders who typically select victims at random, such as rapists and serial killers.
In the early 1980s, Ressler helped to organize the interviews of thirty-six incarcerated serial killers in order to find parallels between such criminals' backgrounds and motives. He was also instrumental in setting up Vi-CAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). This consists of a centralized computer database of information on unsolved homicides. Information is gathered from local police forces and cross-referenced with other unsolved killings across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Working on the basis that most serial killers claim similar victims with a standard method (modus operandi) it hopes to spot early on when a killer is carrying out crimes in different jurisdictions. This was primarily a response to the appearance of nomadic killers who committed crimes in different areas. So long as the killer kept on the move, the police forces in each state would be unaware that there were multiple victims and would just be investigating a single homicide each, unaware that other police forces had similar crimes. Vi-CAP would help individual police forces determine if they were hunting for the same perpetrator so that they could share and correlate information with one another, increasing their chances of identifying a suspect.
He worked on many cases of serial homicide such as Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex offender. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1987 and 1991. His murders involved rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism...
and Richard Chase
Richard Chase
Richard Trenton Chase was a United States serial killer who killed six people in the span of a month in Sacramento, California...
.
Ressler retired from the FBI in 1990 and is the author of a number of books about serial murder. He is active giving lectures to students and police forces on the subject of criminology, and in 1993 was brought in to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to assist in the investigation into the murders committed by Colin Ireland
Colin Ireland
Colin Ireland is a British serial killer known as the "Gay Slayer" because he specifically murdered gay men. His victims were five men....
.
Ressler's visit to Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...
(in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
) to investigate the still-active femicides
Female homicides in Ciudad Juárez
The phenomenon of the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez, called in Spanish the feminicidios and las muertas de Juárez , involves the violent deaths of hundreds of women since 1993 in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a border city across the Rio Grande from the U.S. city of El...
occurring there served as inspiration for the character Albert Kessler in Roberto Bolaño's
Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño Ávalos was a Chilean novelist and poet. In 1999 he won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel Los detectives salvajes , and in 2008 he was posthumously awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for his novel 2666, which was described by board member Marcela Valdes...
novel 2666.
Books by Robert Ressler
- Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives (with Ann W. Burgess, John E. DouglasJohn E. DouglasJohn Edward Douglas , is a former special agent with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation , one of the first criminal profilers, and criminal psychology author.-Early life:...
, Ann Wolbert Burgess) (1988) - Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI (1992)
- Justice Is Served (with Tom Shachtman) (1994)
- I Have Lived In the Monster (1998)
Robert Ressler defined the words serial killer as 'someone who kills for personal gratification'
See also
- Crime Classification ManualCrime Classification ManualCrime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes is a text on the classification of violent crimes by John E. Douglas, Ann W. Burgess, Allen G. Burgess and Robert K...
- FBI Method of ProfilingFBI Method of ProfilingThe FBI method of profiling is not a system created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is used to detect and classify the major personality and behavioral characteristics of an individual based upon analysis of the crime or crimes the person committed....
- Forensic psychologyForensic psychologyForensic psychology is the intersection between psychology and the criminal justice system. It involves understanding criminal law in the relevant jurisdictions in order to be able to interact appropriately with judges, attorneys and other legal professionals...
- Investigative psychologyInvestigative psychologyInvestigative psychology is the term given to a new area of applied psychology. It brings together issues in the retrieval of investigative information, the drawing of inferences about that information and the ways in which police decision making can be supported through various systems derived...
- Offender profilingOffender profilingOffender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to profile unknown criminal subjects or offenders. Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling,...
- John E. DouglasJohn E. DouglasJohn Edward Douglas , is a former special agent with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation , one of the first criminal profilers, and criminal psychology author.-Early life:...