Being interested in law enforcement, this aspect of anthropology and archaeology is particularly interesting to me. There are two ways to approach this specialized section of archaeology. One can be a trained forensic archaeologist with a PhD who is contracted by various police departments to work on crime scenes. Conversely, one can be a police officer who is trained to work as part of the forensic identification section.
What is seen on television in drama shows such as CSI:Crime Scene Investigation and Bones is highly unrealistic. In reality, forensic identification officers work on a variety of crime scenes from robbery scenes (e.g. looking for fingerprints) to murder scenes (e.g. examining human remains). Much of the highly technical equipment seen on television is also far-fetched. Officers cannot simply scan a fingerprint into a computer and produce a perfect match. Several matches are generally produced after which the officer must visually inspect the characteristics of each fingerprint before deciding on the best match.
As a police applicant myself, I may choose to do this sort of work. Only the future will tell!
For more information visit www.forensicarchaeology.org
No comments:
Post a Comment