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.
Every agency will have their own requirements depending on the position and their preferences. For crime scene or to work in an evidence dept, a criminal justice major may be fine. If you can find a forensic science program that may be great. There is no one answer because it depends what positions they have at each agency.
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It may depend on how fresh the stain is and how fresh your reagents are. Plus just becuase something fluoresces does not mean it’s semen (see answer above).
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I would expect it to be like any other interview--they will ask about your education and experience. If there is any practical experience you have, such as lab analyses, fingerprinting, what programs you used, they may ask specific questions about that such as which software did you use, did you use a mass spec or an electron microscope, etc. If there's things you haven't done, you might say you're aware of the theory of, say, bullet trajectory analysis but haven't had any hands-on experience. That's perfectly okay, no one is an expert in everything. Best of luck!
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I'm sorry but that's beyond my technical expertise. You need a toxicologist for that one.
Best of luck!
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DNA is genetic material. Substances that contain cells that contain DNA, such as blood and sweat and saliva can have many other substances as well, but a crime lab would likely only look for DNA.
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Because fingerprints, tire tracks, footwear impressions and sometimes handwriting can, with sufficient individual characteristics, be identified to a specific person or item. (Glass can as well in the case of a 'jigsaw' match, when it physically fits into a piece of evidence.) These analyses require human attention and thorough training and competency and are not quite as simply done as adding a blood sample to a thermocycler for DNA analysis. Explaining DNA analysis takes a highly trained analyst but the actual process is largely automated.
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It all depends on where you want to work and what they require. At the coroner's office we all had at least a bachelor's degree in a natural science like biology, because there were not any forensic degrees then. If you want to be a DNA analyst you will probably need to major in genetics or biochemistry. At the police department where I work, with our very small lab, we are only required to have a high school diploma--but you get extra points in the interview process for advanced degrees so we all have at least a bachelor's.I don’t know how helpful medical technology would be because that is specifically geared toward a different profession.
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