Forensics discussions

[Annie Anthrax]

I would imagine internships would be quite competitive in the criminal justice sector. Man, wish I was an intern when I was younger! Shame I couldn't find anywhere that did such a thing.

I suppose you also have to ask yourself what area of criminal justice do you wish to go into. The more legal aspect? The law enforcement route? Forensic science? Probation work?

There are lots of different areas and especially in the US, dozens of agencies involved in 'detective work'. While I couldn't comment on places doing internships, I would imagine most of them wouldn't say no to having you look around for the day or whatever.
I know it's not quite the same thing, but it'll give you a taste of what that agency does and see if it's your cup of tea. Also you could ask them how you can best prepare yourself for working in a similar organisation or get more involved.

It might be then that you decide to go to university and study into that area further, so when you do apply for a job the odds are heavily in your favour.
You can change between careers, so you can start out learning to be a lawyer and then switch to being a forensic scientist, but it takes a great deal of time (many years) and money (many thousands) to make said change. So, you know, be sure of what it is you want to do!  

[Evan_or_L]

Personally, I want to be a behavior analysist for the 2nd BAU team for the FBI. To do that I am going to go the police route and go the FBI. I want to specialize in homicide.  

[Annie Anthrax]

Neat! How do you do that? Can't you just join up as an agent?  

[Evan_or_L]

To become an agent, you have to do, I think, three years police and College courses on criminal justice studies not to mention a few others.  

[Annie Anthrax]

That sounds very complicated! I'm afraid the only knowledge I have of such things are from reading Thomas Harris books. It sounds super amazing though!

Whoa! Check it out! FBI internships!  

[Evan_or_L]

That's pretty cool. I appreciate that link! 3nodding heart biggrin whee  

[Annie Anthrax]

I got practical homicide investigation out of the university library! biggrin

It's really interesting, but at the same time, it's difficult to find words that express just how graphic it is sometimes. sweatdrop There are some really messed up people out there! The author really knows his stuff though and there are lots of interesting case studies to illustrate what he is talking about (along with pictures).

I did some digging, you can get the third edition quite cheap and the only real difference is that the fourth (and most recent edition) is that it's a little bit more up to date and the photographs are in colour as opposed to black and white.  

[Evan_or_L]

I've seen crime scene murder photos. Sometimes thay are so graphic they almost look fake. Almost...  

[Annie Anthrax]

Any joy with those FBI internships chief? Do your local police do anything like that? Even if it was just going out for the day it'd be really ace!

Man, had my forensic case studies exam yesterday. Lots of difficult little questions!
For instance, explaining about gun shot wounds and how a hanging has different characteristics to a strangulation and how you can tell between the two.
Gosh, only a day has passed and I've forgotten half the questions already!

Oh! Fire! That was one question, talking about arson deaths, how you can tell if a person was dead before a fire or not. And how a fire can make it seem like someone has been injured in an attack.

And THEN having to talk about Ted Bundy and how the case lead to further developments in forensic science. Specifically forensic odentology. Dude was caught out by his teeth!

It was alright I guess, just hope I did okay!  

[Evan_or_L]

That's cool! Yeah I'm taking a psych 101 final today. As for the police, they have something like that but it's far for me.  

[Annie Anthrax]

Is it true you can make fake DNA? What does this mean for the justice system!  

[Evan_or_L]

There is a theory that says that you can create nucleotides from electricity and gas coming through a tube with particular additions. But as for faking DNA, it's not really too hard. You can use police fingerprint tape to collect fake evidence along with cotton swabs and water. But I generally think that you need an original piece of evidence. You can multiply certain dna pieces.