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.
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My guess is it depends on what you want to do. If you want to work in a lab, then biology for DNA or trace evidence or chemistry for toxicology would be the way to go. If you want to work in the field, mostly at the crime scene, then you might want the more general forensic science. Go on the websites of agencies and professional organizations, look at their vacancy postings, and see what they ask for. Best of luck!
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I’ve done microscopic comparisons of animal hairs, when I was doing hair and fiber comparisons at the coroner’s office, to establish a connection between items found on a suspect’s clothing or environment and items found on a victim’s clothing or environment. That’s about it.
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Why do you post questions that need to be deleted? Most people have better things to do.
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No. I do lots of stuff detectives don’t do, like lab analysis, scene reconstruction, latent print comparison, etc. And they do tons of stuff I don’t do, like track down victims/witnesses/suspects and interview them, run criminal histories, request search warrants, and so on. So our jobs are really very different. We are there to provide the forensic support for the case, but forensic topics are only part of any case. Hope that helps!
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I have absolutely no idea.
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Any agency can use whatever requirements they want, so some (like mine) require only a high school diploma (but give extra points for advanced degrees, so we all have degrees). Some might require a Bachelor’s in any subject but give more points for forensic training—or not. The only way to know is check their job postings. Best of luck!
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