Criminal Investigation And The Crime Scene - 1148 Words

I am sure I am not the only one that thinks of the hit television show CSI when I hear of criminal investigations. What people probably don’t know is that the people who work as investigators are not particularly pretty people with pencil skirts, expensive suits, and a full hair and makeup team; they are law enforcers that specialize in the science aspect of solving crimes. In 2009, Hekim stated that: Investigative police work is mostly about the â€Å"recovery, analysis and interpretation of information about criminal offenses. The investigative process of a crime consists of taking victim and witness statements, examining the crime scene, collecting physical evidence, analyzing collected material to identify the offender(s) and then†¦show more content†¦1). Americans obtained their first investigators in 1789 and they were known as revenue agents (O’Connor, 2006, para. 3). Americans in the late 1700s were recruited from civilian life and it wasn’t until the 1950s that a college education was preferred in the investigations department (O’Connor, 2006, para. 3). The first major private detective agency of the nineteenth-century was formed by Allan Pinkerton in 1819-1884 (Swanson et al., 2002, para 1). In my opinion, the biggest milestone for investigative work was the discovery of DNA. It has made the task of appre hending criminals exponentially easier and is virtually error-free. How to become a Criminal Investigator There are different ways to become a criminal investigator: you can go to school and major in criminology or criminal science and get hired as a criminal investigator—perhaps in a small town where prior experience is not required—or you can take the most common avenue and become a police officer first. After becoming a sworn police officer, you can receive on-the-job training and attend specialized classes to become an investigator. Speaking with a current Myrtle Beach Police Crime Scene Investigator, David Bailey, I learned that if you want to go into investigations you don’t necessarily need a certain under-graduate major; you just need to get your foot in the door by becoming a police officer and then be willing to