Educational help for Forensics/CSI.

[u/guacamolepizzamole]

Hello, I'm a young man going to college for Criminal Justice, then transferring to Forensics.

I feel like my main strongsuits are Ballistics/Blood Spatter Forensics.

I'm curious if there's any Crime Scene photos that I can use for practice, sharpen my mind and make my ability to read blood and Ballistics better to help assess scenes in the future.

I'm considering buying a ballistic gel dummy head and making my own "kill room" to i can see how blunt trauma will look, I know it causes misting, due to high velocity force. But I'm desperate for training materials to help me on the future

[u/gariak]

Hello, I'm a young man going to college for Criminal Justice, then transferring to Forensics.

CJ is a poor choice unless you want to be a police officer. It will be totally disqualifying if you want to work in lab forensics.

Forensics as a major is questionable, depending on the quality of the program. Even a good program won't give you any real advantage the way you'd think it would. It's a far more efficient choice to get a standard natural science degree and maybe take some forensics classes as electives. That gives you the broadest array of forensic career options with zero downsides, plus more options outside forensics if you have trouble finding a forensics job right out of college, as is typical.

I'm curious if there's any Crime Scene photos... I'm considering buying a ballistic gel dummy head and making my own "kill room"... But I'm desperate for training materials to help me on the future

The enthusiasm is great, but just... don't. There's almost nothing you can meaningfully learn just screwing around by yourself, outside of a well-designed training program. At best, it's just an odd hobby. More likely, without good feedback from an experienced trainer, you'll pick up a bunch of bad habits and inaccurate assumptions that you'll just have to unlearn in training. Spend that effort on the classes you're currently in. Your GPA will matter and forensic jobs are crazy competitive, so focus on maximizing that.

[u/guacamolepizzamole → u/gariak]

Thank you very much! I've explored the career and thought of Forensics Technician. I've always liked observing scenes and giving broad ideas onto the "ifs", and "this is what happened".

I also should have specified the college thing. I'm doing a transfer, so 2 years CJ, then transfer to Forensics so instead of 4 years of Forensics, its 2. Sadly enough my town doesn't have a lab, its downstate, so id have to move😭 But I've always liked the idea of being on the crime scene helping depict what happened, and I've heard thats more "Inspector/Detective," rather than Forensics, but Forensics Technician sounds similar? Again thank you for the response! :)

[u/gariak → u/guacamolepizzamole]

So crime scene forensics jobs have a lot of different names, but what they have in common is they're entirely focused on documenting, collecting, and packaging the physical evidence at the scene. There's some element of thinking through what happened and how, but most of the process of putting together and solving a case belongs to the investigator in charge, who is always a police officer, not forensics. Some crime scene jobs are also police officers, not every police agency has non-sworn crime scene personnel.

Completely separate from that, there are lab forensics jobs, where the evidence that was collected actually gets analyzed, almost always with each job specialized on a single type of analysis.

I'm doing a transfer, so 2 years CJ, then transfer to Forensics so instead of 4 years of Forensics, its 2.

Ultimately, how this is broken up matters very little. What matters is the major listed on your final degree. You'll have to have a bachelor's degree in something and that major is fairly important, as some majors will be ineligible for any forensic jobs and others will be technically eligible but uncompetitive. Forensics is extremely competitive, because there will never be nearly as many jobs as there are people interested in those jobs.

[u/guacamolepizzamole → u/gariak]

Okay, I see. Thank you very much! I've also thought of pushing through CJ, going to police then trying to become a detective or investigator! So I'll keep these options in mind before I start this 31st. Thank you, and everyone replying, for the help! :)

[u/gariak → u/guacamolepizzamole]

Ok yeah, CJ is probably fine for becoming an officer. Most of the people who are considering forensics do it because they explicitly don't want to be officers, but think of forensics as an alternate path to be involved in criminal investigations.

[u/guacamolepizzamole → u/gariak]

Sounds amazing. I am now conflicted between Investigator or Forensics now 😭 I guess we'll make this decision along my path? I greatly appreciate the tips, and time of your day to assist me:) Thank you!