Expert: Jean M Mahan - 6/30/2010

Question
I don't know if you have seen this, but there is a movie called 'Copycat' starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. In the film, Weaver plays a character who can tell what type of person the killer is, their personality and everything, by the crime scene. She looks at two identical crime scenes and points out that one is disorganised and one is organised, and she notices sometihng like how the killer put a rag over the victims head and that showed how they regretted the murder. I think it was something like "field expert on serial killers".
Anyway do you know what her profession is? And how easy it is to get that job, salary and how competitive the field is?

Many thanks.

Answer
TV gives the wrong impression, remember it is for entertainment. There is no such profession as a crime scene analysis. Analyzing the crime scene for the personality traits of the perp started with the FBI tracking serial killers. Most of the analysis relies on the statistics of what type of person; age , race, sex, that most often commits that type of crime. Now most police departments give seminars to the police officers on the basics. The basics of the analysis are pretty easy. Other than the few, very few FBI agents who specialize in this area, I don't know of any specific profession for this type of thing. Competitive for the jobs, the very few jobs, intense. Everyone is fascinated with serial killers. If you really look at it, the analysis i.e. organized vs disorganized is hardly a big clue as to the perpetrator. Look at your co-workers or other students, who is organized and who is disorganized-organized. That takes care of about 50% of the population. Public servants of any kind don't make a very large salary, even with Master's Degrees in Criminal Justice or Psychology.