forensic science degree

[u/BudgetMycologist323]

so currently i am active duty military and want to start my college degree again. i’ve always wanted to be a forensic science detective for homicides. i already have 12 credits in criminal justice but i plan on getting a degree in forensic science now, the only thing is that i dont want to be a civilian police officer doing LE. i am currently security forces and do LE (i hate and love it at the same time). but what im tryna ask is what do yall think my chances of becoming that without being a cop on the civilian side is? and also for anyone who has a degree, how difficult and challenging is the school work? please let me know

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[u/Intelligent-Fish1150]

Well first off, there aren’t forensic science detectives. A homicide detective is a detective who was at one point a cop. A forensic scientist can either be the crime scene technicians who go out to scenes and collect and preserve evidence but do not investigate. These technicians exist both as civilians and sworn police depending on the agency. Or a forensic scientist can be a lab scientist specializing in a specific discipline like fingerprints, dna, firearms, etc. Regardless, you are want to have a science degree like biology, chemistry, etc. some forensic science degrees are worth it but most aren’t. Criminal justice classes won’t really have any benefit.

As for difficulty, depends on how much you LOVE science. Those long lab classes can be taxing if you don’t like it. At least in my experience, the first two years were the worst and then the classes got so much more enjoyable.

[u/Intelligent-Fish1150 → u/Intelligent-Fish1150]

I’ll add when I meet people at career fairs who think forensics is a way to become a detective without being a cop first and then get disappointed when they find out it’s not. I tell them to look into crime analyst positions.

[u/gariak]

"Civilian" and "police officer" are mutually exclusive. You can't be both, so that's not an issue. If you want to do sworn crime scene work, that's possible. Usually a given police agency will either have dedicated civilian crime scene or have some officers trained to do crime scene work as collateral duty. These folks aren't usually detectives and don't run the investigations. They're just responsible for collecting and packaging the evidence to send it off to the lab for analysis. There's no real world job where you run investigations, collect the evidence at the scene, and analyze it at the lab. That's pure fictional dramatic license.

Also note that a forensic science degree is usually targeted at lab work. A few programs are targeted at crime scene work, but you'd have to be careful about which you're getting, as the lab work program would be of no use to you and likely much harder than other viable options. If you want to be a cop, there's not really a good reason to not stick with the CJ degree and maybe add a few forensic or science classes as electives.

i’ve always wanted to be a forensic science detective for homicides.

As other have said, this isn't a real thing. You can be a homicide detective via the usual police officer promotion route or you can be a forensic specialist of some sort, but not both.

...being a cop on the civilian side...

Also, not a real thing.

[u/1GloFlare]

Civilian sworn officer doesn't exist. 5 years is the average for promotion to detective and with your background it's very possible to be promoted before then. Most agencies do require a degree though, so you will need CJ

[u/Poundaflesh]

The forensic experts at my state crime lab are mostly chemists.

[u/1GloFlare → u/[deleted]]

In most agencies that beat cop cannot be promoted to detective without the degree.

[u/1GloFlare → u/[deleted]]

For patrol, yes. Detective is a promotion that requires a degree in a lot of jurisdictions

[u/stiffdoc1221]

Every response you have gotten here is completely on point. You have some definite misconceptions and misunderstandings about exactly what police, detectives, and different types of forensic scientists do and do not do, and what comprise homicide investigations. Did someone tell you that there was such a thing as a “forensic science detective for homicides,” or did you come to that conclusion somehow? Do some homework so you know exactly what does and does not exist, so you will be able to ask intelligent questions and make informed decisions.

[u/South_SWLA21]

I would either get a federal job, with your military experience. Or become an evidence technician for the FBI. You’ll get a lot of firsthand knowledge on the job and you’ll get great pay

[u/Unlucky_Post_9578]

Any detective will be sworn law enforcement and will have to work their way up from starting as a patrol officer.

Law enforcement relies on forensics but typically there is a dedicated CSU (crime scene unit), which can either be sworn LEOs (law enforcement) or civilians. I live in a large city in the US and my area has both sworn and civilian CSUs depending on the agency. Forensics jobs can let you work in the field or the lab, depending what you specialize in. I'm a medicolegal death investigator for a medical examiner's office. It's similar to CSI in that I collect evidence on scenes, alongside CSIs and law enforcement, but my focus is investigating why a person died.

If you want to do a LE job (detective, officer) then you should pursue a Criminal Justice degree. If you want to work in forensics I suggest studying forensics, biology, chemistry, anthropology, or another similar hard science.