The purpose of this research project was to build a foundation for the senior project

that is coming up in the near future. There has already been previous research
towards the subject of forensic science. The most basic and general information
has already been gathered so a realization of how vast the field of forensic science
has occurred. Therefore, there is a need for specification. With analysis of each
subdivision of the field, it was decided that, criminalistics, would be the specific
discipline the researcher would further explore. Criminalistics is the scientific
analysis of evidence collected from a crime scene. Criminalists analyze anything
from hairs, fibers, gunshot residue, and blood. There are two main functions for
forensic laboratories: identifying evidence and linking individuals, objects, and
locations through the physical evidence. Therefore, it is essential for someone to
have a strong background in chemistry, biology, and any other related subjects.
Criminalists must also have specialized training, strong analytical skills, and
practical experiences. The minimum educational requirement for a criminalist is a
bachelors degree but the more education one receives the more qualified they will
be. But the learning will never stop because forensic science is such an everevolving field especially with every new advancement the world makes. For the
future, it would be beneficial to the research process to be able to shadow a
criminalist, so that the researcher could obtain firsthand experience on what the job
is like.