Q: What degree will I have to get to become a Forensic Scientist?
A: A Forensic Scientist or Detective has a very difficult job that is important to the solving of crimes and processing of evidence. All physical evidence that is collected at crime scenes needs to be analyzed by a Forensic Scientist. During investigations Forensic Scientists help bring criminals to justice and keep innocent people from being prosecuted.
There is a difference between Forensic Science and Forensic Medicine, according to Wikipedia Forensic Science is defined as the scientific method of to solve questions in an interest of a legal system. The qualification you will reading for is a Science based degree or diploma with a specialization in Forensic Science.
Forensic Medicine is the use of medical evidence to help solve and serve legal purposes, the medical evidence can be drawn from examples of studies like Forensic Pathology. Forensic Pathology is a branch of Pathology that looks at the cause of death of an individual. In this case the qualification you will be reading towards is a Medical degree with a specialization in Forensic Pathology…confusing we know!
So let’s see what we can do to clarify everything!
General information:
About.com on a career in Forensic Science.
Then a cool website that focuses on Forensic Medicine:
The USA:
The Study.com website provides an interesting breakdown of the top colleges in the USA to study Forensic Science.
United Kingdom and Europe:
Forensic Outreach an awesome resource into this scientific field!
South Africa:
Stellenbosch University: Under their Health Science Department the University offers a Forensic Medicine Course
South America:
In particular Brazil…SciDev.Net (http://www.scidev.net) has a short but interesting piece on the progress of Forensic Science in the region.
Australia:
Check out this awesome website called Studying Science, Engineering and Technology Worldwide and their take on studying Forensic Science in the land down under!
Last but not least as always we have to draw on the popular Television show CSI and the famous words of Horatio!
