Introduction to Intelligence Studies

Introduction to Intelligence Studies288

small item from the victim to help them later relive the crime (“trophy” or

“souvenir”). is is referred to as ritual behavior—that activity that was

not necessary to commit the crime but which might provide insight into

an oender’s motivation and personality. If enough MO and ritual behav-

iors are discovered, the oender’s signature, or their own unique way of

committing the crime, might be revealed. In this way, serial crimes can be

linked together.

e FBI put these concepts into practice when it created the Violent

Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) in 1985. Law enforcement

agencies from throughout the United States submit both solved and unsolved

cases to ViCAP, where they are analyzed and ca