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Three crime-scene
investigators inspect the scattered remains of a body tied to the
undercarriage of a prison bus. "The torque of the
spinning axle ripped her apart like the rubber off a bad retread," one
of them says. Later, a lab examiner
lifts the body's skull out of a boiling pot, examines it and declares,
"Skull's not ready yet... enzymes are still eating away at the
proteins." Scenes like these from
the smash hit, "
The rising acclaim for
the show and its spinoffs has triggered an increase in the interest in
forensics as a major for college students – even though they don't always
have a realistic view of the field. "It's an
intrinsically interesting field of study," said Dr. William Walkenhorst,
chair of the Department of Chemistry at On Sept. 23, millions
of Americans will once again tune into " "To watch what
goes on in a lab to solve a crime is exciting," said Dr. Frank Scully,
dean of Loyola's Loyola offers forensic
chemistry as a major. Forensics is also an option as a minor for those
studying criminal justice. Walkenhorst estimates
that about one third of the 100 students in the Department of Chemistry,
major in forensic chemistry. In 1999, there were only 45 students studying
chemistry. The impact of " "There are more
and more programs that have forensic science now in their curriculums,"
said Edward Robinson, an assistant professor of forensics at Between 1999 and 2002,
the number of graduate students studying forensic sciences jumped from 113 to
190 at George Washington. There were only three
students studying forensic sciences at At the Katalin Korossy, who
studies forensic science at George Washington and watches " Korossy said she has
learned about the use of new forensic equipment through the show. But despite the insight
the show provides, " "It can't
represent what's going on in the real world, or people would be bored,"
he said. "It's got to solve two or three crimes in an hour." Robinson, who spent 25
years as a crime-scene technician, said that he watches the show regularly
and finds it entertaining, but fraught with inaccuracies. "They blend
several job titles into one group of people," he said. "Lab
examiners are one animal, and crime-scene techs are another." Korossy notices the gap
between fact and fiction, too. "I find that
people don't want to watch with me because of the inaccuracies I point
out," said Korossy. "It's certainly not as glamorous as they show
it." She said that crime-scene
investigators do not interrogate suspects, as on the show. Robinson said that
because of " The number of students
who don't have undergraduate degrees in chemistry, biology or physics, but
still apply to the forensics program has increased since " "We get some
strange applications, because they just don't know any better," said
Robinson. "We don't even consider anyone without adequate
background." Walkenhorst said that
students at Loyola are able to get a feel for forensics in the real world
through internships at places such as the New Orleans Police Department crime
lab. "They come back to
us and say it's not like (the show)," he said. Korossy said that she
knows other students who found out the hard way that the profession is not
for the faint of heart. In an Intro to
Forensics class, she said, some students "get freaked out by crime-scene
photos." "There can be a
lot of blood," she said. "I am fascinated by the way a corpse
decomposes." Robinson believes that
" "If it sparks an
interest in students beginning to study science, that's a great thing,"
he said. "(But) people have to be aware that it's truly
entertainment." |
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