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Dr. John Kavanagh is Director of the Administration of Justice Studies Program at Scottsdale (Arizona) Community College. He earned a BA in Sociology from N.Y.U., an MA in Government and Politics from St. John's University (Queens , N.Y.), and a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University. Dr. Kavanagh previously taught at Arizona State University. He is also a retired Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Detective Sergeant. Direct correspondence to Dr. John Kavanagh or to Editor. |
Forensic Science Education
From the early prophetic musings of Sherlock Holmes to the sophisticated depictions of the work of crime scene investigators on contemporary television shows, the general public has always had an insatiable thirst for forensic science. Dead bodies in locked rooms, the aroma of bitter almond inside a whiskey glass beside a corpse, and a bloody fingerprint on an exit window are the fuel of human amusement, imagination, and even dreams. Public interest in forensic science courses has been growing exponentially for the last decade, spurred by the multitude of both fictional and documentary crime scene shows on regular and cable television. Our experience at Scottsdale Community College has been that the more we expand our forensic science course offerings, the more students we attract. When it comes to forensic science: “If you build it, they will come.”
In order to meet the growing demand for information and career training in forensic science, colleges all over the country have expanded course offerings, introduced Internet classes, and developed new degree programs. This article will acquaint you with the types of forensic science classes available at Scottsdale Community College (SCC) and, no doubt, many colleges near you.
Forensic Science at SCC Today
Today, Scottsdale Community College meets the needs of a wide variety of students who require varied levels of forensic science knowledge. At the lowest level, non-criminal justice students and ordinary citizens who just want to know a little bit about forensics can enroll in almost any of our forensic science courses. Our Internet-delivered AJS216: Biological Evidence and AJS219: Physical Evidence courses are especially popular with this group of students.
Other students who aspire to become crime scene technicians are advised to take the six courses that comprise our Crime Scene Technology Certificate Program. Crime scene technicians go to crime scenes, photograph and sketch them, locate and collect evidence, and then drop the evidence off at the crime lab, where crime lab criminalists take over and scientifically analyze it.
For those desiring to become police officers, federal agents, probation and parole officers, criminal lawyers, and other criminal justice system practitioners, we offer our traditional two-year degree in Administration of Justice Studies AAS Degree and urge those students to include some of our forensic science courses within that degree as electives. Our two-year degree transfers as the first two years of college at many four year institutions.
Persons desiring to become crime lab criminalists may now pursue our new two-year Pre-Crime Lab AAS Degree , which permits them to transfer as forensic science majors to four-year colleges with a forensic science program or as chemistry majors to other four year colleges. Unfortunately, four year colleges with “true” forensic science crime lab programs that prepare students to work as criminalists are few and far between. Consequently, many crime labs hire students with BS degrees in chemistry and give them on-the-job training in the crime lab, often in apprentice roles for six months to two years, depending on the specialty they choose.
Contrary to television myth, there are no crime scene investigators (CSIs) who singularly process crime scenes, test evidence in the lab, track down and interrogate suspects, and make the arrest. These are distinct tasks usually performed by crime scene technicians, crime lab criminalists, and detectives, respectively; all of whom guard their occupational “turf” from incursions by each other. (In real life, a crime scene technician could never turn to a police detective and shout, “This is my crime scene, get out of here!”) At best, police detectives may also collect evidence in some jurisdictions or crime lab criminalists may occasionally be called out to crime scenes for unusual cases. Otherwise, students wishing to become TV-like CSIs must settle for only part of the occupational pie or take up acting as a career.
The Crime Scene Technology Certificate Program
Scottsdale Community College 's 16 credit Crime Scene Technology Certificate is a blend of six courses designed to train students as crime scene technicians. As mentioned above, crime scene technicians go to crime scenes, photograph and sketch them, locate and collect evidence, and drop the evidence off at the crime lab, where crime lab criminalists take over and scientifically analyze it.
The six courses in our Crime Scene Technology Program include three Internet-based courses. AJS216: Biological Evidence covers the physical and chemical nature and collection of biological forensic evidence including blood, semen, DNA, drug and alcohol evidence, and hair. AJS219: Physical Evidence covers glass, fiber, tire and footprint, fingerprint, paint and explosive residue evidence. General information on crime scene processing and the role of the crime lab and forensic specialists are also included in both courses.
Students in AJS216 and 219 are also mailed “crime scene kits” that permit them to perform some “hands on” crime scene or lab exercises at home. Students in the biological evidence class recover some trace and biological evidence, conduct a chemical presumptive field test on a white powder suspected to be a drug, and use Luminol to determine which of two stains contains blood. (Don't worry. The blood is animal blood from a cooperative local meat store.) Students in the physical evidence class dust and lift fingerprints, cast a footprint in soil using dental stone, and iodine fume a piece of paper to reveal a latent (invisible) fingerprint.
The third Internet-based course is AJS290BN: Courtroom Testimony, which teaches students how to prepare for and testify in court. In addition to issues of demeanor and dress, this course acquaints the student with basic court procedure and typical tactics and tricks used by lawyers in court against witnesses “hostile” to their side.
The other courses in the crime scene technology certificate program are all classroom-based because they contain practical skills not teachable over the Internet. AJS213: Fingerprinting teaches the taking, dusting, chemical processing, classifying and lifting of fingerprints. AJS214: Crime Scene Photography teaches the student to photograph and sketch crime scenes. A final “capstone” course called AJS242: Crime Scene Processing allows students to apply and demonstrate all the knowledge learned in the other courses in processing crime scenes.
The Pre-Crime Lab Two-Year Degree
The new television and cable shows have also dramatically increased the number of students wishing to work in crime labs as criminalists. Unfortunately, just as these shows misrepresent the role of the crime scene personnel, so too do they misrepresent the role and capabilities of the crime lab criminalist. The shows depict crime lab personnel as being generalists who are experts in multiple sub-disciplines of forensic science. In one episode the same criminalist may lift and process fingerprints, test DNA, conduct a ballistics test and analyze hair and fibers – all before the first commercial break. In real life, few people could acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to master all those fields in one lifetime. Most criminalists only work in one or two areas, with DNA becoming the largest specialty.
Our Pre-Crime Lab AAS Degree is a two-year Associates degree designed to transfer to four-year colleges as the first two years of a four-year forensic science or chemistry degree, depending on the college. We modify it so as to allow for the inclusion of forensic science courses available at Scottsdale Community College but not at most four-year colleges and universities lacking a forensic science department, which is almost all of them. Our degree also includes traditional general education courses. However, we steer students to general education courses better suited for future forensic scientists, like public speaking, as opposed to one-on-on or small group communications courses, to prepare them to testify in court. We also direct them to higher levels of math and science because crime lab work demands such expertise.
Conclusion
Regardless of whether you just want to tell your co-workers that a technique shown on the previous night's CSI show was made-up or whether your goal is to become the chief criminalist at the FBI's crime lab, many of your local and distant community and four-year colleges are a forensic science educational resource you need to investigate. It would be a crime not to take advantage of such opportunities.
Useful Links
American Academy of Forensic Sciences: http://www.aafs.org
American Society of Crime Lab Directors: http://www.ascld.org
International Association for Identification: http://www.theiai.org
Scottsdale Community College 's Forensic Science Program: http://www.sc.maricopa.edu/ajs
Zeno's Forensics Page: http://forensic.to/forensic.html
Copyright 2005 by Dr. John Kavanagh
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web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." |
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