The BAU-5 currently works on developing research and then using the evidence-based results to provide training and improve consultation in the behavioral sciences—understanding who criminals are, how they think, why they do what they do—for the FBI and law enforcement communities.

[2] 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.

[5][failed verification] The Behavioral Science Unit opens the Evil Minds Research Museum, where the FBI houses artifacts from serial killers and other offenders.

[4] These structured professional judgment tools are used to identify and measure human belief states, cognitive behavior, potential threat, or deception.

[4] The Evil Minds Research Museum, located in the FBI Academy, collects items and artifacts that were owned, created, or used by serial killers–ideally their personal possessions–that were seized through search warrants or donated by their families.

[6] All access to the museum is restricted to FBI agents, police personnel, and special guests of the Behavioral Research and Instruction Unit.

[6] In this research, the FBI intends to develop a better understanding of offender motivation, personality, and intent in order to assist and enhance profiling investigative techniques.

[6] FBI agent Ressler, a member of the original Behavioral Science Unit, is credited with coining the term "serial killer" in the year 1974.

[4] Ressler was lecturing at a British police academy in Bramshill, England, when he overheard an officer describing some crime (sexual assaults, robberies, arsons, burglaries, and homicides) as occurring in a series.

[8] Ressler said that the police officer's description reminded him of a movie-industry term “serial adventures”—short episodic films featured in theaters on Saturday afternoons during the 1930s and 1940s which relied on cliffhanger endings to draw audiences back each week.