What is a Crime Scene Examiner?
Crime scene examiners collect evidence, pass it on to trained examiners and analyze crime scenes for law enforcement and legal purposes. Specifically, they gather fingerprints, make casts of footprints and locate and gather trace evidence, such as hair, cosmetics, cigarette butts, glass, synthetic and mineral fibers, and gunshot residue. Just as importantly, crime scene examiners collect biological evidence, such as hair, teeth, bones, tissue, blood and other bodily fluids.
The complexity of each scene and case varies and they aren’t always predictable, so crime scene examiners must take a meticulous approach during each investigation. The crime scenes they oversee range from home invasions to homicides. Upon the completion of their visit to a crime scene, they write a report detailing their observations and hand it over to the law enforcement agency responsible for investigating the crime. Crime scene examiners may be asked to testify in court during trials involving the crime they investigated.
How to Become a Crime Scene Examiner
Aspiring crime scene examiners benefit from degrees in either forensic science or criminal justice. Forensic science degrees equip students with not only the skills they need to properly collect evidence, but also test the evidence in the lab, write reports and prepare for trials. Courses in the major include criminalistics; principles of crime scene investigation; courtroom testimony; forensic molecular biology and forensic chemistry; and evidence identification, collection and processing.
Criminal justice is an interdisciplinary major that combines sociology, psychology, public administration and law. Students pursuing the degree enroll in courses such as research in criminal justice; comparative criminal justice; crime theory and victimization; and special problems in the criminal justice system.
Reliable crime scene examiners must be clear, analytical thinkers, excellent communicators, team players, patient and able to endure unsightly crime scenes. Some states require crime scene examiners to be sworn police officers.
Crime Scene Examiner Career Outlook & Salary
Employment for forensic science technicians is expected to increase much faster than the national average of all occupations from 2008 to 2018. This is due to the expansion of the field of forensic science and the dependency on it by law enforcement agencies and courts. The growing population will result in more crimes, and the simultaneously growing government will need more qualified individuals to investigate them.
Currently, local and state governments employ a vast majority of forensic science technicians: 11,430 of the 12,870 total in the US. Because they’re employed by the government, forensic science technicians receive solid pay, earning a mean annual income of $55,070; the top 10% of earners in the occupation average $84,260 annually.
The states with the highest concentrations of forensic science technicians are Arizona, Florida and Maryland. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater and Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale are notable metropolitan areas with the highest concentrations of workers in the occupation.
