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Criminologists and Reformers

Robert Ressler

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Officials

American FBI agent and a founding figure of criminal profiling, credited with coining the term serial killer, who lectured on the then-unidentified BTK offender years before Dennis Rader's arrest and correctly profiled his background. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account
1937 1
Death YearSourced to the subject's own account
2013 1
BirthplaceSourced to the subject's own account
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. 1
Nationality
American 2
Defining ContributionSourced to the subject's own account
A founding figure of FBI criminal profiling, credited with coining the term serial killer. 3
Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own account
Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives (1988); Whoever Fights Monsters (1992) 1
Connections

Associated With

BTK Case, Landmark Cases

Ressler lectured on the then-unidentified offender years before Rader's arrest and correctly profiled his background.

Source Wikipedia: Dennis Rader

Developed criminal profiling methodology as a Supervisory Special Agent in the unit from the mid-1970s.

Source Wikipedia: Behavioral Science Unit

Robert Ressler, a founding FBI Behavioral Science Unit profiler, worked alongside ViCAP in its early years as part of the FBI's behavioral analysis effort.

Source Wikipedia: Behavioral Science Unit

Disciplines Pioneered

Source Offender Profiling (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Robert Ressler
Wikipedia
  • Infobox, birth date
    February 21, 1937
  • Infobox, death date
    May 5, 2013
  • Infobox, birthplace
    Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
  • Works/Bibliography section
    Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI
View the Source
2. Wikidata: Robert Ressler
Wikidata Q1207524, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
3. Wikipedia: Dennis Rader
  • Profile and investigation section
    At a lecture at WSU, former FBI agent Robert Ressler correctly assumed the killer was a graduate student in the criminal justice field.
  • Associated With: BTK Case, Profile section, Ressler lecture
    At a lecture at WSU, former FBI agent Robert Ressler correctly assumed the killer was a graduate student in the criminal justice field.
View the Source
Wikipedia: Behavioral Science Unit
  • Associated With: FBI Behavioral Science Unit, History - 1976 section
    FBI Supervisory Special Agents John E. Douglas, Robert Ressler and Dr. Ann Burgess members of the Behavioral Science Unit, begin work on compiling a centralized database on serial offenders
  • Associated With: Violent Criminal Apprehension Program
View the Source
Offender Profiling (Wikipedia)
Disciplines Pioneered: Criminal ProfilingView the Source
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