Discovering Physical Forensic Science

Forensic science is one of the most challenging and stimulating careers that someone can choose for a litany of reasons. This is because, unlike other science careers, forensic science deals with the law and most particularly criminal law. What a forensic scientist actually does, is to use science to come to conclusions and solve puzzles with regards to evidence that has been gathered at crime scenes.

Unlike other scientists however; the forensic scientist must be able to defend their conclusions in a court of law. So it is imperative that the conclusions that a forensic scientist arrives at be flawless, because if any of their science is less than credible in one case it can also mean that the conclusions in other previous cases may too be called into question.

Many people are drawn to a career in forensic science because it is a science career that allows them to help people who have been victimized find justice. Problem solving and real life puzzles are still more reasons why people are so drawn to forensic science as a career choice.

Forensic science is continually advancing and new methods of finding answers to the puzzles that are left at crime scenes are continually being developed and tested. This means that a career in forensic science can involve making new discoveries that can be used to solve crimes in the future.

Job security is still one more factor that can't be ignored and with so many peoples lives being disrupted by a job loss, forensic science is a career that you can count on to stay with you your entire life.

Forensic science is not only intellectually stimulating but it is also financially rewarding as well and with the need for forensic scientists growing world wide it also offers an incredible opportunity for travel.

Criminalistics is part of forensic science. It is the forensic science that deals with analyzing and examining physical evidence. A criminalist works in a crime or forensic lab.

This is all well and good, but what should the aspiring or future criminalist know? What training and skills should he or she possess? In this article, I examine the training and skills needed to become a criminalist.

Training:
This is a criminal justice profession where education is important. Those interested in becoming criminalists must be ready to acquire a college education. The minimum educational requirement by most hiring organizations is a bachelor’s degree. A bachelor’s degree will take you about 4 years of college to complete.

Your choice of major for your bachelor’s degree is also important. More and more, the preferred major is becoming forensic science. Some colleges have responded to this requirement. They now offer major in forensic science to meet the needs of future professionals who want to concentrate in this line of work.

To even narrow the field further, some schools offer major in criminalistics. While the forensic science major covers other areas of forensic science, the criminalistics major is a little more concentrated in this area of study.

Other majors that can qualify one to become a criminalist are chemistry, biology, or physics. These are the natural sciences that deal a great deal with laboratory work. This laboratory work background helps in crime or forensic lab work.

It is important to point out that a criminalist must make continuing education part of his or her career. This is to keep them abreast of the latest methods and techniques of doing their job.

Skills:
There are skills needed to become a criminalist. There is no point in embarking on a bachelor’s degree to become a criminalist if you lack the skills to get the job done. If you lack the skills, you will only be frustrated. This frustration can lead you to want to quit and wonder why you got in the profession in the first place.

Below are important skills I feel you need to become a successful criminalist:

1. You must be analytical in nature. This involves the ability to look at different sides of an issue. You can’t run with the first answer you see. You must question if there are other answers and then eliminate the less plausible while keeping the most promising for further analysis.

2. You should enjoy doing research. This will involve a lot of information or data gathering. You must know where to go for this information or data. Then when you get this information or data, you should know and keep the ones that are essential to your case.

3. You should enjoy doing documentation. The criminalist may be called to court to present his or her finding. This finding must be well documented to stand scrutiny in the court of law. Otherwise, the finding will be thrown out of court.

There you have it----the training and skills you need to become a criminalist. I have by no means covered all of them. But, it is hard to do an exhaustive coverage in such a short article.

If you are interested in becoming a criminalist, I recommend you look into this further. You can do so by visiting websites that cover this profession in more detail.

Note: You are free to reprint or republish this article. The only condition is that the Resource Box should be included and the links are live links.

Forensic science can be defined as the application of scientific methods and principles to solve crimes and other types of legal issues. In most criminal cases, a forensic scientist is typically involved in looking for and examining many kinds of physical evidence that can help establishing a link between a suspect of committing a crime and the scene of the crime or victim. Forensics is now a more popular subject since several TV shows became successful, such as Crime Scene Investigation (CSI).

However, very few people realize that being a CSI or forensic professional can be a very good career alternative. One can put forward many reasons that make forensic science one of the best career prospects nowadays. The reasons range from labor market, salaries, benefits to training availability and beyond.

The availability of jobs for someone seeking to be a forensic professional used to be very small for a long time until about five years ago, when many technological and scientific advances started to develop and provided new kinds of tools that substantially improved the efficiency of the police and security forces in solving crimes and other problems. As a consequence, most law enforcement agencies and other institutions greatly expanded their resources and facilities in order to increase their ability to employing techniques and methodologies of forensic science.

Even though police departments alone employ (and keep hiring) thousands of people coming from diverse areas of forensic work and with many different educational backgrounds, police is not the only alternative for those looking for a job related to forensic science or criminal justice. Methods and concepts of forensic science are increasingly being used by many other institutions for diverse purposes so the job market for forensics is greater than ever. Companies that develop, improve and produce tools, reagents, kits and devices to be used in forensic investigation are also a good part of the available job market. The size of the job market and the opportunities associated greatly increase if one considers working abroad. Besides the United States, countries like Britain and Australia are also part of this trend.

Being a discipline that relies strongly on technology, working in forensic science requires the acquisition of certain skills. This means somebody wanting to work in forensics needs at least some sort of higher education. The type of degree and the length of the program vary largely and depend on the kind of work one is interested in doing. Some positions require higher degrees such as Ph.D. or Masters, but many more posts can be taken after a short course of one or two years earned at smaller private academies.

But these requirements are not a big obstacle to be sorted out if one considers the many benefits of working for a forensic department. Positions at police agencies and other law enforcement institutions are often accompanied by substantial benefits and competitive salaries and, best of all, good prospects of stability and professional growth along with an aura of social approval typically associated with law and order public service. These and many other reasons make forensic science on of the best career alternatives available today.

Forensic science is not just what you see on television shows like CSI but rather the use of actual science to help determine the answer to varied legal questions. There are many different types of forensic disciplines that are used to help police and other officials answer these questions. These include criminalistics, forensic psychology, forensic pathology and others.

Criminalistics is the science used to help understand the evidence in crimes. Evidence used in criminalistics can include biological evidence, trace evidence, impression evidence, controlled substances and ballistics. Biological evidence is usually bodily fluids such as semen and blood. Trace evidence are items like hair and fibers. Impression evidence are items like foot prints, impressions of car tires and fingerprints. Criminalistics is usually investigated in a crime lab. Many cities with very large populations have crime labs within their police departments. These include Miami-Dade, Florida and the famous Las Vegas crime lab.

Forensic psychology is the study of the mind of a criminal. Forensic psychologists usually study the motivations that led an individual to commit a certain crime. Forensic psychology has recently come into the limelight as more and more television shows have started to feature it. These includes CSI, NCIS and Criminal Minds. Criminal Minds especially digs into why a person committed the crime so that they may locate the victim before it is too late. Forensic psychology has also been discredited by some as being interpreted in court as opinion and what might have been going through an individual’s mind, not what actually went through the individual’s mind.

Forensic pathology is the study of the cause of death. Literally, pathology is used to determine how someone died and the forensic findings are usually used to backup a court case. Forensic pathology has also recently become popular for television shows such as CSI and NCIS. Many of the cases involve a mystery over death.

There have also been many other forensic sciences such as forensic meteorology, and forensic geology, although these are used much less often than other branches of forensic science. Many of them just involve using analytical skills to determine the cause of the events.

As with any science there have been some disagreements over the scientific effectiveness of certain forensic sciences. One of these cases was an experiment by the FBI. Comparative bullet lead analysis was used by the FBI for over 40 years starting when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The theory was that each batch of bullets had a specific chemical composition, much like an element on the periodic table, and therefore could be traced back to its original batch or even down to the very box. However, internal studies showed this to be exactly the opposite and the test was finally pulled in 2005.

No matter what you may think, forensic science affects you each and every day. Forensic science allows scientific means to be applied to almost any situation so that there can be a root cause determined. Forensic science in any form is just the answering of a legal question using analytical means.

Criminalistics is part of forensic science. It is the forensic science that deals with analyzing and examining physical evidence. A criminalist works in a crime or forensic lab.

This is all well and good, but what should the aspiring or future criminalist know? What training and skills should he or she possess? In this article, I examine the training and skills needed to become a criminalist.

Training:
This is a criminal justice profession where education is important. Those interested in becoming criminalists must be ready to acquire a college education. The minimum educational requirement by most hiring organizations is a bachelor’s degree. A bachelor’s degree will take you about 4 years of college to complete.

Your choice of major for your bachelor’s degree is also important. More and more, the preferred major is becoming forensic science. Some colleges have responded to this requirement. They now offer major in forensic science to meet the needs of future professionals who want to concentrate in this line of work.

To even narrow the field further, some schools offer major in criminalistics. While the forensic science major covers other areas of forensic science, the criminalistics major is a little more concentrated in this area of study.

Other majors that can qualify one to become a criminalist are chemistry, biology, or physics. These are the natural sciences that deal a great deal with laboratory work. This laboratory work background helps in crime or forensic lab work.

It is important to point out that a criminalist must make continuing education part of his or her career. This is to keep them abreast of the latest methods and techniques of doing their job.

Skills:
There are skills needed to become a criminalist. There is no point in embarking on a bachelor’s degree to become a criminalist if you lack the skills to get the job done. If you lack the skills, you will only be frustrated. This frustration can lead you to want to quit and wonder why you got in the profession in the first place.

Below are important skills I feel you need to become a successful criminalist:

1. You must be analytical in nature. This involves the ability to look at different sides of an issue. You can’t run with the first answer you see. You must question if there are other answers and then eliminate the less plausible while keeping the most promising for further analysis.

2. You should enjoy doing research. This will involve a lot of information or data gathering. You must know where to go for this information or data. Then when you get this information or data, you should know and keep the ones that are essential to your case.

3. You should enjoy doing documentation. The criminalist may be called to court to present his or her finding. This finding must be well documented to stand scrutiny in the court of law. Otherwise, the finding will be thrown out of court.

There you have it----the training and skills you need to become a criminalist. I have by no means covered all of them. But, it is hard to do an exhaustive coverage in such a short article.

If you are interested in becoming a criminalist, I recommend you look into this further. You can do so by visiting websites that cover this profession in more detail.

Note: You are free to reprint or republish this article. The only condition is that the Resource Box should be included and the links are live links.

For diverse reasons, Forensic Science is becoming a very popular subject, although few people seem to have a concrete idea about this branch of Science. Probably the main reason for the popularity of forensics is the success some TV shows have enjoyed during the past few years. CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) is by far the best example, where teams composed by fashionable young investigators skillfully manage to solve the most complicated criminal cases whose preliminary evidence often lead to unpredictable outcomes.

However, the reality of the forensics world is often far from what is depicted on TV serials. Actual forensic investigations involve several groups of people, each specialized in a different area of expertise, rather than being a small group where the members perform very different tests and methods.

Leaving Hollywood aside, let’s take a brief look at the main areas that compete to forensic experts.

Forensic Anthropology: These experts search, recover and analyze human remains with the aim of establishing the identity of unknown individuals. They can deal with remains such as skeletons or decomposed, mummified, burned, or otherwise unrecognizable bodies to inquire parameters such as age at death, sex, stature (height), ancestry or pathology. Other estimations such as time since death and manner of death are also carried out. They are involved in criminal cases but also when deaths resulted from accident, suicide, or even mass disasters or human rights violations (i.e., genocide).

Forensic Pathology: These are also known as Medical Examiners. They usually carry out autopsies of dead bodies to establish cause of death and identity, or confirm it if not known yet. Autopsies are performed when death was sudden or unexpected, as it is the case of accidents, homicides, suicides or other tragedies.

Forensic Odontology or Forensic Dentistry: Specialize on using dental evidence to establish identity. Dentition remains are often helpful in cases of mass disasters or where multiple deaths occurred. Dental forensics also analyze bite marks looking for dental features that could lead to a match between a wound and a suspect's dental features like tooth alignment and shape.

Forensic Nurses get involved in recognition of cases of abuse, either child physical or sexual abuse, or cases where adult domestic violence, raping are suspected. They usually work in hospital emergency room situations

Forensic Chemistry and its related field Forensic Toxicology deal with the analysis of chemicals such as drugs and poisons that may occur in body fluids or at crime scenes. Such studies can contribute to know the cause of death in murder, identify chemicals used in explosives or used to start or accelerate a fire. Other elements of interest for this field include fingerprints, soil, dust, fibers, glass and hairs.

DNA Analysis and Molecular Biology are becoming popular subjects in forensic science. The main purpose of this field is the analysis of DNA for purposes of human identification

Forensics is a big and growing field of the law related professional sphere and involves other aspects that I will address in other articles. Keep in mind that whichever branch one chooses to embrace, becoming a forensic scientist requires full commitment with ethics and a lifelong dedication. Just remember that working in forensics is not just a fashionable position but a job bearing some responsibility on imparting Justice and the freedom of the innocent and the ability of the Law to punish the guilty are at stake.

Forensic Science is the application of science in forensic studies, the forensic part of forensic science implies that it is to be utilized in some form or another with a court of law and is relevant to legal proceedings. Forensic Science is rapidly progressing to the point that the science fiction of today could well be the science reality of tomorrow.

Forensic Science has been around for many centuries. However, it was not until recently that advances in scientific research and scientific studies made this a true and individual aspect of forensic research. Recent studies and research have brought the field of forensic science to new heights and given it increasing credibility and importance as a deciding factor in many legal proceedings, where forensic evidence often outweighs the testimony even of witnesses on the scene.

Almost everybody has heard of DNA evidence or fluorescing as well as many other recent scientific developments in forensic science. While many of us get our information from television programs such as CSI, the reality is that forensic science is rapidly moving from the realm of television to the broader expanse of the real world. DNA evidence is now an important part of most legal proceedings involving any human body. Whether discussing fibers from hair, clothes or even something so mundane as dust, forensic science can often draw conclusions and point to irrefutable facts that often lead to convictions of criminals who, if not for forensic science, would be free to commit more atrocities.

Fibers can have a telling tale that can only be exposed by the use of forensic science. Carpet fibers are unique to makes and manufacturers. Gunpowder contains microscopic residue that can correctly identify the type of powder, the manufacturer of the shell and much more information. Simple particles of dust, when viewed by using forensic science can place items or individuals at definitive places often down to an exact time frame. Something that we may see as just a bug or insect can tell how long an item has been in a particular location. There are many factors that are explored with Forensic Science. The scientific conclusion offers irrefutable proof and can be an effective tool in the fight against crime.

Advances in science and in particular with forensic science are not only new and fascinating but are constantly improving and being refined. Not only is forensic science a great tool for today, but the future looks bright indeed. An interest in Forensic science may even help the underachiever of today take enough interest in science and related fields of study to turn around and study harder to become the next practitioner of forensic science tomorrow. Forensic science benefits society as a whole in many different ways.

Criminalistics is part of forensic science. It is the forensic science that deals with analyzing and examining physical evidence. A criminalist works in a crime or forensic lab.

This is all well and good, but what should the aspiring or future criminalist know? What training and skills should he or she possess? In this article, I examine the training and skills needed to become a criminalist.

Training:
This is a criminal justice profession where education is important. Those interested in becoming criminalists must be ready to acquire a college education. The minimum educational requirement by most hiring organizations is a bachelor's degree. A bachelor's degree will take you about 4 years of college to complete.

Your choice of major for your bachelor's degree is also important. More and more, the preferred major is becoming forensic science. Some colleges have responded to this requirement. They now offer major in forensic science to meet the needs of future professionals who want to concentrate in this line of work.

To even narrow the field further, some schools offer major in criminalistics. While the forensic science major covers other areas of forensic science, the criminalistics major is a little more concentrated in this area of study.

Other majors that can qualify one to become a criminalist are chemistry, biology, or physics. These are the natural sciences that deal a great deal with laboratory work. This laboratory work background helps in crime or forensic lab work.

It is important to point out that a criminalist must make continuing education part of his or her career. This is to keep them abreast of the latest methods and techniques of doing their job.

Skills:
There are skills needed to become a criminalist. There is no point in embarking on a bachelor's degree to become a criminalist if you lack the skills to get the job done. If you lack the skills, you will only be frustrated. This frustration can lead you to want to quit and wonder why you got in the profession in the first place.

Below are important skills I feel you need to become a successful criminalist:

1. You must be analytical in nature. This involves the ability to look at different sides of an issue. You can't run with the first answer you see. You must question if there are other answers and then eliminate the less plausible while keeping the most promising for further analysis.

2. You should enjoy doing research. This will involve a lot of information or data gathering. You must know where to go for this information or data. Then when you get this information or data, you should know and keep the ones that are essential to your case.

3. You should enjoy doing documentation. The criminalist may be called to court to present his or her finding. This finding must be well documented to stand scrutiny in the court of law. Otherwise, the finding will be thrown out of court.

There you have it----the training and skills you need to become a criminalist. I have by no means covered all of them. But, it is hard to do an exhaustive coverage in such a short article.

If you are interested in becoming a criminalist, I recommend you look into this further. You can do so by visiting websites that cover this profession in more detail.



Note: You are free to reprint or republish this article. The only condition is that the Resource Box should be included and the links are live links.

In previous articles we explored some of the most commonly known areas in which forensic experts carry out their daily duties. Among these, we mentioned forensic anthropology, forensic pathology, forensic dentistry, forensic nursing and forensic chemistry or toxicology. Forensic Science, however, is a very broad field of study and involve many other disciplines that on a daily basis contribute to solve crimes. Let us now take a brief survey of other, less known aspects of Forensic Science.

Forensic Entomology: Even though mostly disregarded (at best), insects can result highly informative and even critical for certain forensic investigations. Many insects develop through a complex series of stages from egg to adult, but most important is that these life cycles are highly consistent, the different stages occur always in the same way and take the same time to complete. Knowing this, an entomologist (someone who is expert in insect biology) can make a number of useful observations and establish conclusions based on the insect larvae and adults that are present in a corpse. Insect evidence can provide estimations of the time passed since death. It is also possible to determine how long a body has been dead or whether or not a body has been moved after death.

Forensic Botany: Plants or certain vegetal matter can often be very informative about the decaying process of human bodies and their surroundings. Botanists can analyze seeds, pods, roots, leaves, stems, and more to determine when and where a body died, if a body was moved after death. Under certain conditions they can also establish estimates of time since death and location of death estimations based on plant evidence.

Forensic Photography: Although it has changed a lot since the golden age of police TV serials and movies, photography is still a crucial component of forensic work. A forensic photographer must carry out meticulous and comprehensive visual documentation of death scenes, crime scenes and accident scenes. This include the general scenario but also many details that are often disregarded at first glance but can result very important at later stages of the investigation. The intuition of the photographer is very important in this case. Forensic photography makes use of special equipment and techniques such as macrophotography when it is necessary to record images of small evidentiary materials such as bullets or other projectiles, blood spatter, or any sort of close-ups of evidence at death scenes. These professional exhibit profound knowledge and skill in general photography, film developing, digital photography, videography, digital imaging and other, more focused techniques.

Homicide Detective, Crime Scene Investigator. This is a less defined but important part of the forensic work. These workers are usually in charge of organizing the investigation of death scenes and performing collection of evidence associated with death(s). They also conduct or supervise further stages such as processing of evidence and all the administrative work associated with investigating deaths and crimes. In some institutions or departments, these positions are occupied by sworn officers that have received the appropriate training to supervise the scientific aspects of resolving a criminal case and can be under the jurisdiction of a senior officer or an attorney.

Forensic science can be defined as the application of scientific methods and principles to solve crimes and other types of legal issues. In most criminal cases, a forensic scientist is typically involved in looking for and examining many kinds of physical evidence that can help establishing a link between a suspect of committing a crime and the scene of the crime or victim. Forensics is now a more popular subject since several TV shows became successful, such as Crime Scene Investigation (CSI).

However, very few people realize that being a CSI or forensic professional can be a very good career alternative. One can put forward many reasons that make forensic science one of the best career prospects nowadays. The reasons range from labor market, salaries, benefits to training availability and beyond.

The availability of jobs for someone seeking to be a forensic professional used to be very small for a long time until about five years ago, when many technological and scientific advances started to develop and provided new kinds of tools that substantially improved the efficiency of the police and security forces in solving crimes and other problems. As a consequence, most law enforcement agencies and other institutions greatly expanded their resources and facilities in order to increase their ability to employing techniques and methodologies of forensic science.

Even though police departments alone employ (and keep hiring) thousands of people coming from diverse areas of forensic work and with many different educational backgrounds, police is not the only alternative for those looking for a job related to forensic science or criminal justice. Methods and concepts of forensic science are increasingly being used by many other institutions for diverse purposes so the job market for forensics is greater than ever. Companies that develop, improve and produce tools, reagents, kits and devices to be used in forensic investigation are also a good part of the available job market. The size of the job market and the opportunities associated greatly increase if one considers working abroad. Besides the United States, countries like Britain and Australia are also part of this trend.

Being a discipline that relies strongly on technology, working in forensic science requires the acquisition of certain skills. This means somebody wanting to work in forensics needs at least some sort of higher education. The type of degree and the length of the program vary largely and depend on the kind of work one is interested in doing. Some positions require higher degrees such as Ph.D. or Masters, but many more posts can be taken after a short course of one or two years earned at smaller private academies.

But these requirements are not a big obstacle to be sorted out if one considers the many benefits of working for a forensic department. Positions at police agencies and other law enforcement institutions are often accompanied by substantial benefits and competitive salaries and, best of all, good prospects of stability and professional growth along with an aura of social approval typically associated with law and order public service. These and many other reasons make forensic science on of the best career alternatives available today.