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Criminal Investigator Jobs
Criminal investigator jobs are in high demand at the moment as America struggles to lower crime rates in the country. Most criminal justice careers have positive job outlooks well into the future, and investigation is no different. If you are considering working in this field sometime soon, you may want to learn what it takes to become a criminal investigator. This is not a career for everyone, so you need to make sure you know what you are getting into. You may find that it is the perfect position for you. Here is a look at what it takes to become and work as a criminal investigator.
Becoming a Criminal Investigator
Becoming a criminal investigator is simply a matter of getting the training you need to work in a criminal justice career. This will start with a criminal justice degree in college. Most investigators get a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in criminal justice, but some pursue slightly different degrees. In your degree program, you will likely take courses that focus on investigation to get a feel for what you may be doing in your job. Upon graduation, you will be able to start a hands-on training program for your career.
You will need to work alongside other criminal investigators at first until you can become one on your own. The amount of training you go through will depend on how quickly you learn. You may work with a team of law enforcement officials, or you may work in a forensic science lab. There are so many criminal investigator jobs out there that it is hard to say where you will get your final round of career training. Wherever that place may be though, it will provide the launch you need for your career. Then you just have to start applying for criminal justice jobs in the area and hope for the best.
Crime Scene Investigator Job Duties
The duties of a criminal investigator will vary based on the crime he or she is dealing with at a certain time. Murder cases require a completely different set of tactics than dog fighting cases, but they all require the same basic process for investigation. Here are some of the steps that a criminal investigator will take in a case:
Case Research
Since there is such a wide range of duties required for criminal investigator jobs, an investigator must start every case by doing a little research on the parties involved. The investigator must know what kind of people may have been a part of the crime and what the nature of the crime was as a whole. This allows him or her to get a better understanding of the evidence he or she will be looking for at a crime scene.
Crime Scene Investigation
The primary duty of a criminal investigator is to analyze a crime scene and collect evidence. This evidence helps other members of the criminal justice system determine what may have happened during an event. Tire tracks indicate the direction of a vehicle. Fiber samples indicate the clothing someone may have been wearing at the scene of a crime. All of these little details must be pinpointed, documented, and evaluated to figure out how a crime came to be.
Suspect Interrogation
Sometimes the only way to understand what happened in a crime is to interrogate the people involved with it. A criminal investigator will ask victims and suspects a series of questions to try to piece together a story. There is always a lying side and factual side of an interrogation, so it is the investigator’s job to figure out which is which. Then he or she will have a better idea of who committed a crime.
Court Testifying
A criminal investigator may have to testify in court about the nature of his or her findings. This is usually because the plaintiff in a case needs the word of a professional in the field to back his or her claim that someone is guilty of a crime. Criminal investigators in this situation must share their findings, not their opinions. They are trained to present the facts and nothing more.
You may come across many other responsibilities for the criminal investigator jobs you look into after college. It just depends on where you work and the kinds of crimes that are common in your area. Speak to a criminal justice in the town you want to work in for more information about what you may do when you get into the field.
