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.
First of all, no teacher should ever tell you you're 'not smart enough' for a field.
Second, not all forensic work involves a great deal of biology--really only DNA analysis and serology do. Toxicology will require a good chemistry background. But specialized fields such as latent prints, crime scene investigator, questioned documents, digital evidence, ballistics and impression evidence would use little to no biology.
If a formal degree becomes a problem, you might want to see if you can start out in an Evidence/Property area and work up from there.
Best of luck!
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Sure, email me at Lisa-Black@live.com
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Our office gets journals from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the International Association for Identification, as well as smaller publications like newsletters for the Florida Division of the IAI and the one for the association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts.
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Well, you could simply say you're going to be an anthropologist, which is true--I believe you'd have to be an anthropologist first and then specialize in forensic work. They might be disapproving because they believe it will be difficult to get a job--which is probably also true. When I was at the coroner's office our anthropologist was a college professor who would drive two hours to come and consult whenever we had skeletal remains. Very few agencies are large enough to have a full-time anthropologist on staff. So you might want to have some sort of back-up plan.
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Any kind of lab work, lab courses or internships in laboratories or with the criminal justice system.
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If you could possibly create different colored filters for your camera with transparent, colored films? That might enhance the writing. That's all I can think of, sorry!
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I'm sorry but I don't know. A DNA testing company can probably help you. Best of luck!
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