Traditional Forensics Degrees and Online Forensic Degree
Welcome! I'm trying to collect in one place all of the forensic science schools, degrees and certificate programs out there for new students looking to start their careers. It's the kind of thing I wish I had had back when I was just getting started. It can be tough choosing where to go to continue your education, what branch of forensics to study, or what kind of job to pursue once you're graduated. Fortunately, though, it's getting easier and easier to find a program because of the huge number springing up around the country. Hopefully you can take something useful from these pages to help you along the way.
So what kind of training do I need
Unless you work in forensic science, around people all day who have studied this stuff, it's impossible to figure out what kind of degree you need to do what type of forensics. Sure, many colleges will tell you to take this course and that course, take organic chemistry, take physics and math. So it's important to understand that such broad prerequisites underscore the fact that forensic science is a really, realy big field. It encompasses all manner of science -- really, any kind of science that can be applied to the law. Traditionally, this has meant forensic chemists (who do lab analysis on drugs and arson residue, for example), forensic biologists (DNA analysis, blood typing, etc.) and even forensic engineers (figuring out why a bridge failed, and who's at fault). Newer fields like Forensic Psychology, while novel at one time, have become accepted in courtrooms that have to determine a crook's ability to be released back into society, or fitness to stand trial.
Forensic Science for those not-so-interested in the science part.
You need to understand that crime scene investigation can be as much science as you want, or as little science as you want. Take crime scene investigation, for example. When a crime is committed, often the first people on the scene are police officers. They're usually the ones tasked with, at a bare minimum, securing the crime scene so stuff doesn't get screwed up until the forensic scientists get there. In smaller towns and jurisdictions, though, the police are the only people available who can respond. So they have to know how to document evidence, collect fingerprints and evidence, and collect samples and specimens in a manner that doesn't jack up the court proceedings and let the perp off scott-free. To this end, many Criminal Justice programs in the U.S. will offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in Crime Scene Investigation. About the only "science" you find in these programs is maybe fingerprint collection, ballistic trajectory interpretation, and maybe an hour or two on blood spatter interpretation. The degree you would get out of this is most likely a B.A. in criminal justice, or possibly a B.S. if your coursework in research, statistics and forensic science is substantial enough. With more than just a few science courses, these programs may grant you a "specialization" or "concentration" in forensic science.