What is Forensic Science and How to Be a Forensic Scientist

Forensic science is a growing career that gives scientists the opportunity to become specialized in a number of different techniques. Two of the reasons that people are drawn to the forensic science field are to be involved in preventing crime and witnessing justice. Forensic scientists gather evidence from the crime scene and test the evidence in a laboratory.

Evidence at a crime scene can include bodily fluids, fibers and weapons. Crime fighters that use chemical and biologic technology to analyze the evidence they can recover are forensic scientists. They document their observations in photographs and sketches and reconstruct crime scenes. 

Cleveland Miles, the deputy director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab, learned about forensics while interviewing a lab technician at the GBI crime lab. He was working as a drug chemistry technician at the time and went back to school after two years to take a course in biochemistry so that he could apply to be a scientist.

The GBI subsequently promoted him to forensic biologist, in which capacity he worked in the serology and DNA sections. The GBI trained him in those sections. He was “working cases and working evidence,” which was very fulfilling for him as a scientist, he states.

“I was doing science and I was helping people,” Miles says. “They were victims of crime. Some of them were killed. We could investigate the evidence that arrived and connect some factual detail about it that could help that investigation and lead to someone being arrested, or clear someone who was falsely accused.”

He spent five years or so working as a scientist before transitioning into management. He saw there was room to help more junior professionals who had career aspirations in forensics.

To work in his department, applicants must pass drug and polygraph tests. When Miles talks to young individuals about a career in forensics, he warns them that they should be ready for such tests, something he has seen a lot of applicants fail at.

Along with these qualifications, as stated by the BLS, technicians may also be subject to taking proficiency tests in such fields of laboratory science, for example. 

The BLS also predicts employment growth in forensic science will be robust – it will increase 13% from 2024 to 2034. In May of 2024, the median for forensic science technicians was $67,440.

The bureau also reports scientific and technological progress will increase the application of forensic data available to courts, and consequently will require more employees working in conjunction with law enforcement administrators.

Thanks to crime investigation television shows and films, competition for jobs will probably be stiff, say experts.

The students asked for the type of course, and Meader persuaded administrators to allow her to pilot it. She consulted with police department acquaintances and also attended an American Academy of Forensic Science conference, where she picked the brains of forensic experts about how to prepare her course to best effect.

“It was a great experience that mushroomed into something bigger than anything I ever could have dreamed,” she says.

Meador explains how the students learn to apply their categorical science in a three-dimensional context: looking at a crime scene from biology’s perspective, the availability of living tissue; chemistry, in chemical reaction; and physics, taking into consideration angles such as the way a gun was shot.

She informs them that what they are used to viewing on a Hollywood show is not real. “It is not always possible to solve a crime in 45 minutes. Not that it can happen, but the whole process from receiving a call about a crime to what the end result of the crime is, is a time-consuming process.”

Careers in Forensic Science

The majority of Meador’s forensics students have gone into law enforcement and homicide investigation, she says. “I have some students who went into the lab work doing DNA research in biology and chemistry, students who’ve gone into medicine, and some who’ve gone into doing law.”