Criminal Justice Careers in Forensics
As a Crime Scene Examiner, you will work whenever and wherever crime occurs, indoors or outdoors, day or night, and have to be able to deal with dead bodies and other messy situations but there certainly is a lot less routine. The pay is not great but few folk voluntarily leave a crime scene section for other duties. The intellectual challenge is still there and the scientific basis of the field is developing. Some tasks will become more routine and more sophisticated but overall it could be an exciting time for the next decade. The crime scene examiner should have a bachelor's degree either in a natural science with emphasis in law enforcement and crime scene processing or a criminal justice degree with emphasis in natural science.
The psychologist, social scientist and statistician generally are in some academic setting and apply their specialty to an investigation or trial on a part-time basis. Psychological profilers, however, are becoming more involved with investigations on a full-time basis. Technical analysts usually are attached to an investigative unit and generally work in a lab-like environment but respond similarly to crime scene personnel. Additional information on forensic science careers is at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences webpage.