It’s all in a Day’s Work

June 13, 2011
Introduction to Criminal Justice
CRJS 1003

Numerous fields lie in the criminal justice department. While looking at those fields and researching what each area consists of, I think to myself, “what is it that I want to do with this degree?” I know that I want to be involved in case study, criminal prosecution, investigation but most importantly helping families to find answers and gain results. With these specific criteria in mind, I search for a field that complies and find a crime scene investigator and realize that’s my choice. When becoming a crime scene investigator a person “will need to be an experienced police officer who receives specific professional training. If you aren’t already a police officer, you will need to have at least a college degree” according to Criminal Justice Degrees Guide. Obtaining a degree in criminal justice will just be a minor portion of the study that would have to be concluded in order to be a crime scene investigator. Crime Scene Investigators play a massive role in the investigation process and must be guided in numerous areas in order to fulfill their position to fullest extent possible. The natural and physical sciences would be a must for a crime scene investigator as it would be necessary to understand these areas in order to properly document and understand a crime scene. The Criminal Justice Degrees Guide specified that, “you can design your own program based on classes in these sciences, as well as social or criminal psychology and criminal justice. This mix of courses will prepare you for work that requires you to apply your technical scientific knowledge to a crime scene.” Sciences would be necessary for various reasons such as location of blood splatter, amount of time the person has been deceased, environmental conditions, the surroundings of the crime scene, etc. Proper training would be necessary to ensure that the investigation process is completed accurately and promptly. The cases that a crime scene investigator deals with are not to be taken lightly and if the investigator is not trained properly, numerous mistakes could be made throughout the investigation causing numerous unfortunate mishaps. If a person is murdered and a crime scene investigator comes in who is unprepared, then the case may go unsolved leaving a murderer on the loose and a family without their loved one. This only is only one specific example, but numerous others exist as there are numerous areas that a crime scene investigator would assist in solving. The Criminal Justice Degrees Guide states that, “A crime scene investigator is trained to examine the evidence and elements that comprise the scene of a murder, robbery, rape, or other crime.” These specific conditions are what make this job exciting as well as rewarding. Crime scene investigators are a vital part of determining the outcome of the crime that has been committed. Many hours of investigation, research, questioning and paperwork are involved in every case and a person wanting to be in this field would have to be extremely dedicated to what they do. Crime-scene-investigator.net states that, “the purpose of crime scene investigation is to help establish what happened (crime scene reconstruction) and to identify the responsible person. This is done by carefully documenting the conditions at a crime scene and recognizing all relevant physical evidence.” A crime scene investigator must be able to pick up on little items that are out of place or that should be sitting in a specific spot that are not. When dealing with a crime scene the investigator should be able to pick up on all specific details such as the lighting, weather, shoeprints, gunshot residue, evidence of a fight, etc. All of this information along with much more should be carefully documented exactly as it was. In this situation is never alright to exaggerate anything or leave anything out. There