I've started my class in criminalistics. In the coming weeks I will learn about evidence documentation; shoeprint/tireprint impression evidence; firearms and tool mark examination; questioned document examination, fingerprints and personal identification, serology, DNA, bloodstain pattern interpretation, drugs of evidence, trace evidence, arson and explosives, courtroom testimony. Will this help me as a writer? I hope so.
One thing that doesn't help me is that everyone around me at the back of the class (where I used to sit when I was a real student), spends their time text messaging and checking their voicemail. The class is spending the semester on the Jeffrey MacDonald case (Fatal Vision). I was the only student in a class of 50 that had heard of the case. I'm not even sure they knew who Charles Manson was? And these are the future Detroit Police.
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8 comments:
Hey, I learned all that stuff from the Hardy Boys Detective Casebook! Cool!
My fault for reading Nancy Drew.
This is a depressing account of our future cops. I think you're lucky to be working on that case. It's always fascinated me. Keep us informed.
Since I'm just auditing the class, I'm not doing the project. Last night, we concentrated on crime photography. Wish I had taken it before I wrote a crime novel about a photographer.
Ooooh. That sounds like a fun one.
Yes and no. Last night I found out I had lots of stuff to add to my novel re: crime photography. I'm glad to have caught it in time, but it's hard to figure where and how much to add.
Well, I hope it's more exciting than my criminology class, which was mainly sociological theory at a 200-level pace. I didn't even read the last third of the text or study for the final and still got a B+
This is all crime scene stuff. He's a chemical forensics guy. He's gonna just go through crime scenes week after week and tell us what to look for and what it means. Groovy.
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