LIsa Black
Cape Coral, FL
Female, 49
I spent the five happiest years of my life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist in the Cleveland coroner’s office I analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now I'm a certified latent print examiner and CSI for a police department in Florida. I also write a series of forensic suspense novels, turning the day job into fiction. My books have been translated into six languages.
She should try to get an internship with a local agency--city, county, state police or medical examiner's. Practical experience will count for a lot. However much depends on what kind of forensic scientist she wants to be--does she want to do crime scene work, in which case most of the training is on the job, or does she want to work in a lab, in which case she'll probably need at least a BA in biology or chemistry. She can check forensic organization websites and government websites for job vacancy postings to get an idea of what the job requirements are. She might also check out entry level positions. At our department we have PSA--Public Service Aides, a paid position that's basically a step between community volunteers and sworn officers. They do more cop-type things, but will make contacts and learn a lot. They do things like direct traffic at accident scenes, take burglary reports and process scenes for fingerprints. She might also want to consider that forensic positions involving crime scene work often have unpredictable hours and sometimes overtime, which might be difficult to juggle with child care arrangements.
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As I'm not trained in digital forensics, I'm afraid I wouldn't know. PS the purpose of this website is not really so that you can cut and paste your homework and get other people to do it for you.
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Any kind of lab work, lab courses or internships in laboratories or with the criminal justice system.
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The vast, vast majority of people who kill people didn't plan to kill someone, so they often leave fingerprints, blood, witnesses, text messages, and then come up with some sort of story that sounded good in their head but wouldn't fool a 6 year old.
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Programmer
Why are so many developers such bad communicators?
Former IRS Revenue Officer
Did you ever deal with people who tried the 'Wesley Snipes' defense?
Meter Maid
Is it tough to have a job that consists exclusively of ruining peoples' days?
Yes. I've never heard it mentioned that certain things don't show up until later.
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Yes. It's not common, but prints have been lifted using superglue or the more recent RTX. The best areas would be those that are smooth, clean and largely free of hair.
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That depends on what you want to go into. If you want toxicology, go with chemistry. If you want serology or DNA, go with biology. If crime scene, general forensic science.
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