ViCAP - Violent Criminal Apprehension Program

November 21, 2022

ViCAP is a unit of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) responsible for the analysis of serial violent and sexual crimes, organizationally situated within the Critical Incident Response Group's (CIRG) National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC). ViCAP maintains the largest free repository for behavioral and investigative information related to solved and unsolved violent crimes.

It is designed to collect and analyze information about Homicides (and attempts) that are known or suspected to be part of a series and/or are apparently random, motiveless, or sexually oriented; Sexual Assaults that are known or suspected to be part of a series and/or are committed by a stranger; Missing Persons where the circumstances indicate a strong possibility of foul play and the victim is still missing; and Unidentified Human Remains where the manner of death is known or suspected to be homicide (NOTE: The previous four case types described constitute ViCAP Criteria Cases). The training that is available will cover the use of ViCAP, the Highway Serial Killings Initiative and Investigative Resources.

Why is this important to Texas?
The 86th (R) Texas Legislature passed HB3106, creating what is now called Molly Jane's Law. This law took effect on September 1, 2019, and specifically states all Texas law enforcement agencies (LEAs) must enter their sexual assault cases into the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) National Database. The 87th (R) Texas legislation passed HB3607, which changed the Government Code reference for Molly Jane’s Law (Texas Government Code 420.035 and 420.036) and is effective 9/1/2021.

What are agencies required to enter?
Agencies are required to enter into ViCAP:

  1. All pending sexual assault cases regardless of whether the investigation was commenced before, on, or after the effective date of Molly Jane's law, September 1, 2019.
  2. Other sex offenses where biological evidence has been collected. It is important to note that agencies enter on the basis that biological evidence was collected. Agencies should not wait until testing on biological evidence is complete to enter, as this delays entry of required data.
  3. Agencies can enter other offenses that qualify for ViCAP but there is no requirement under Molly Jane's Law to do so.

Molly Jane's Law

Agency Resources

Have any ViCAP related questions?

Questions related to ViCAP and Molly Jane's Law can be emailed to: ViCAP@dps.texas.gov or call one of our trainers at (512)-424-2091.