Jim Beasley

Jim was a Special Agent in the FBI for over 30 years, with the last 14 years of his career spent as a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) at Quantico, Virginia.  He spent the majority of his time in the NCAVC’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) – 3, dealing with crimes against children.  While there he provided operational and analytical assistance in criminal investigations involving a variety of violent crimes, including child abduction, child sexual victimization, and serial murder and sexual assault.  The operational support involved behaviorally-based analysis of violent offenders in such specific areas as risk, personality and threat assessment. 

Based on these analyses he prepared numerous written reports of his findings and recommendations which furthered criminal investigations, prosecutions and mitigation.  He provided his behavioral assistance in numerous cases through on-scene reviews with investigators, crime analysts, medical examiners, and prosecutors, and through in-house case consultations with other members of the BAUs.  Prior to his retirement, he participated in the creation of a new BAU subunit, the Cyber Behavioral Analysis Center (CBAC).

During his assignment in the BAU, he conducted numerous reviews of unsolved cold cases and long-term missing child cases, as well as comparative analyses designed to provide support for linkage among serial offenses.  He performed similar work at conferences and training events hosted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Teams (CARDTs), and NCAVC workshops throughout the country.

Jim conducted extensive research on child abduction and homicide, as well as serial murder. Most of the cases he studied involved various degrees of sexual assault.  These projects included lengthy and detailed interviews with dozens of convicted offenders in state and federal prisons throughout the U.S., as well as many of their victims and family members.  He also contributed to other BAU research projects, including sex trafficking of juveniles, criminal use of weapons of mass destruction, and cybercrimes.  He was an active participant in the BAU’s Research Advisory Board (RAB) throughout his tenure there.  He has been a member of the International Homicide Investigators Association (IHIA), the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship (ICIAF), and the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME).

He served as the program manager for the NCAVC in its ongoing collaboration with the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), through the WRAMC’s Uniformed Services University (USU) of Health Sciences, F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine.  In this capacity he supported Walter Reed’s Forensic Psychiatry and Forensic Psychology Fellowships with the NCAVC, and was an adjunct faculty member of those programs.  He collaborated with Department of Defense (DOD) agencies, including U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) and U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) at the Russell-Knox Building in Quantico, Virginia, and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) in Ft. Meade, Maryland.  Following the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks, he was assigned to follow up investigations in New York City, the Pentagon, and FBI Headquarters (FBIHQ) in Washington, D.C.  He also participated on-scene in the development and use of various interview strategies for DOD investigators who were tasked with eliciting information from terrorist suspects detained at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), Cuba.

As a result of his extensive experience and research studies throughout his FBI career, and along with Bureau colleagues and public university partners, Jim has authored a number of articles that were published in peer-reviewed academic and professional journals.  A list of these articles may be found under the publications tab.

Since his retirement he has reviewed manuscripts of articles submitted by other authors for publication in academic journals, including the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. He has also been a frequent guest lecturer in the graduate program in forensic psychology at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. He possesses and maintains a security clearance with the U.S. government. He is a consultant, specializing in child abduction matters, for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, based in Alexandria, Virginia.

Jim has made over 200 presentations to various government and professional organizations throughout his Bureau career and since his retirement.  Within the FBI, he taught frequently at the FBI Academy as an adjunct faculty member, for both New Agents’ classes and sessions for state and local law enforcement investigators and managers in attendance as students at the FBI National Academy (FBINA).  He has also presented to other organizations and institutions, including the following:

Academic Institutions

Government Organizations

Professional Organizations

While in the BAU, he also trained and consulted internationally with criminal justice professionals in the following countries:

Prior to his assignment in the BAU, he conducted investigations in three field offices and was then assigned to the FBI Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where he conducted forensic examinations of clandestine drug and money laundering documents, testifying 40 times in federal and state courts as an expert witness.  Following that, he was a Supervisory Senior Resident Agent in the Fresno, California, Resident Agency, a satellite office of the Bureau’s Sacramento Field Division.  During that management assignment, he was an Assistant Inspector’s Aide-in-Place, participating in headquarters and field office inspections throughout the country.  He also conducted internal reviews involving allegations of employee misconduct, under the auspices of the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).

Jim has a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Central Missouri State University (CMSU) in Warrensburg, and a Master’s degree in public administration from the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC).