Hazelwood, Robert (Roy) R.

AMERICAN
FORENSIC CONSULTANT

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI ) agent Robert (Roy) Hazelwood retired from the FBI after serving for 22 years. When the Behavioral Sciences Unit (BSU) was created at Quantico, Virginia, Hazelwood was among the first criminal and behavioral profilers at the facility. He was a supervisory special agent with the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI Academy, and his area of expertise was sexual crimes, particularly crimes involving sexual sadism. During his tenure with the FBI, Hazelwood taught courses at the FBI Training Academy, the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, the United States Military Police Criminal Investigation Division (CID), and the Southern Police Institute. He is a board-certified forensic examiner, an affiliate professor of administrative justice at George Mason University, vice president of the Academy Group, Inc. (a forensic science consulting firm comprised of former FBI and FBI BSU members), and an expert consultant, public speaker, lecturer, presenter, and published author of articles and books on forensic science (more than 40 journal and popular press articles, and co-author of five books). Numerous citations, certificates, and awards have been bestowed upon Roy Hazelwood by colleges and universities, law enforcement agencies, and criminal justice associations nationwide.

Prior to his career with the FBI, Hazelwood rose to the rank of major in the United States Army Military Police Corps, earned a master of science degree from NOVA University, and studied forensic medicine at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP).

Early in his career with the FBI's BSU, Hazelwood became interested in autoerotic fatalities, which led him to retrospectively study and amass data on more than 150 such cases. Another area of research interest he pursued involved a large-scale survey of the attitudes and beliefs held by law enforcement personnel (particularly police officers) concerning rape. In conjunction with scientists Janet Warren and Park Dietz , Hazelwood interviewed men convicted for sexually sadistic crimes; he personally interviewed perpetrators responsible for more than 800 rapes. They also extensively studied the wives and girlfriends of convicted sexual sadists. More recently, Hazelwood has conducted research in the area of juvenile sex offenders with scientists at the University of Virginia.

As vice president of The Academy Group, Inc. (AGI), Hazelwood continues his work in forensic science by acting as an expert consultant across North America, Latin America, and Europe in the areas of child abduction and molestation, rape, equivocal death, autoerotic fatalities, homicide, and sexual sadism. As an expert witness, he has testified in municipal, county, state, and federal courts, as well as before both houses of Congress and a presidential committee.

see also Choking, signs of; Contact crimes; Criminal profiling; Hanging (signs of); Missing children.