It's finally occured to me that I am not taking advantage of working at a university to supplement my woefully inadequate knowledge of police investigatory work on crimes so I've signed up for a class next semester.
Winter Term 2008
CRJ 5150 Criminalistics
Course Description: Application of the physical and biological sciences to criminal investigation; ballistics, fingerprints, DNA, trace evidence, drugs, arson and explosives, questioned documents, introduction to forensic anthropology, courtroom testimony, ethics.
I hope this is the best one for a crime fiction writer. I am totally geeked about being back in a classroom after ten years. I emailed the guy and he's willing to have me in there with all the cops. Even suggested an anthropology course to go with it.
Any other suggestions on how to get up to snuff? I don't think I'll ever write stories heavy on these aspects of crime, but damn it would be nice to have some understanding of it. I just wish I had taken my friend Maria up on her suggestion that I visit a mortuary before writing my novel.
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8 comments:
Patti:Good on ya' for taking the classes! If you get a chance to talk to a mortician and/or an M.E., take it.
[Autopsies are another matter. If you ever consider attending one I'll be glad to throw in my two cents worth.]
John McAuley
I think my first and last autopsy will be my own--should I have one. I have to look away even on TV. The first cut may be the worst but still...I mayve have to make do on book learning.Thanks, John.
Sounds like an interesting class to me.
Here they have something called the citizens police academy, for free, and it runs for something like 12 weeks and you cover all sorts of investigations. Of course, that's the Calgary Police, so it would have some notable differences from the RCMP, for example.
I'm only getting this for free because I work there. Otherwise it would be fairly expensive. You Canadians are so rational
Patti, a funny thing happened to me on the way to researching my serial killer novel: in 2004 I took a college class in forensic psychology, taught by a profiler.
Like you, I'd been away from college for a long time, was a bit nervous about it but thought it could be a fun experience. But what a surprise, I had such a aptitude for the material.
I decided to take a few more classes and I went on to become one of the top students in the program, and even did an internship at the medical examiner's office where I saw autopsies as well as cooked corpses (beyond gross) since I was assisting the forensic anthropologist.
When my school announced a brand new masters degree in Criminal Forensic Studies, I applied and was accepted. I hope to graduate in Dec. 2008.
My experiences have and will provide me with loads of "grist for the mill" as well as provide a nice platform for me as a crime writer.
And just think, I started out exactly as you - by taking one class! Who knows? You may be joining me as real life criminal investigator who also writes fiction!
Josephine-I am really getting excited about it. As an UG I took a class in physical anthropology where we touched on some of this stuff, especially DNA and I loved that. And the instructor has pointed out classes in anthropology which would dovetail nicely.
I'm taking a class on criminology right now. Make sure the class is taught at a good pace. This class is 200-level undergrad and there are times when I could claw my eyes out I'm so bored. But I just finished a grad program where I easily read 100 pages a day. It took the class five weeks to cover the first 100 pages of the text - and that included the table of contents! Ugh. But I am getting something out of it, I just wished it was a little more intense. I did get a 100 on the first test without studying.
This is a 500-level so I'm hoping there won't be that many students in it although I am not going to take exams or write papers. I guess CRJ is noted for easy grading. We have 600 majors at my university.
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