LIsa Black
Cape Coral, FL
Female, 49
I spent the five happiest years of my life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist in the Cleveland coroner’s office I analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now I'm a certified latent print examiner and CSI for a police department in Florida. I also write a series of forensic suspense novels, turning the day job into fiction. My books have been translated into six languages.
Before I worked in forensics, I was a personnel secretary, a hotel maid, and an ice cream counter server and a gas station 'full service specialist'. My husband is an elevator field engineer. There is 'politics' in every profession. Every. Single. One.
Best of luck!
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What is your favorite part of this job?All the interesting, different, bizarre stories that make up the crimes that have happened that we have to investigate.
What is you least favorite part of the job?Being 'on call' and knowing you can be interrupted at any moment of the day and have to go to a crime scene, even if it's the middle of the night or a holiday. I've also had to change vacations because I have to testify in a trial. I hate that.
Being around the dead is something you either get used to really quickly or you don't. The dead will not bother you, but the living can drive you crazy! And stress depends where you work. I have a great office and a relatively low-crime area, so unless we have a lot all happen at once, which is not too often, it's really not that stressful. If I lived in a more hectic place with too many demands and not enough time or resources, it might be a different story.
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I haven’t ever done an autopsy at all, since I’m not a pathologist. They can be done on animals, usually it’s called a necropsy and may be done by a veterinarian.
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I have no idea as I’ve never worked as a first responder. I would suspect that’s largely a plot device for film or books, but I don’t actually know.
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I think you could ask that about any job. It all depends on the person doing it; if it's only a way to get a paycheck, then it's just a job. If it's all they want to do, it's a career. If it occupies a lot of their personal time, it's a lifestyle. But forensic science can be demanding and most of all, unpredictable, so most people wouldn't do it just as a 'job.'Hope that helps!
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I'm not sure what you mean by post certified?
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That would be a legal question, unaffected by forensics.
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