CAREER CHOICE
Criminal Investigator
"Criminology is an area of sociology that focuses on the study of crimes and their causes, effects, and social impact." A criminologist studies crimes, criminals and their behaviour, as well as, how could society respond to it and the prevention of crimes. The question still remains "Why is there crime?" and "How can we lessen the occurence of it?" It covers three main areas: law, psychology and sociology. Law helps to define criminals and how they could be dealt with. Sociology looks at the social factors contributing to crime. While psychology studies the behaviour of a criminal and looks at the criminal mind. Criminology is important because they keep communities safe and orderly. They also encourage the wellbeing of society. They help us fully understand crimes and the criminals themselves because they both look at the causes and effects of it. Criminologists collecting collecting data and statistic or they could be writing on crime reports. You could also be working in crime scenese and autopsies to better understand what happened during the crime.
QUALIFICATIONS
People who are considering a position in criminology have to go through an extensive background check,interviews and drug tests. To qualify they must not have any criminal records and no drugs in system. It is a highly competitive business and one must have had an internship in the criminal justice field. Other qualifications would be having an undergraduate degree in criminology, a degree in psychology, sociology or law. With studying criminology, you'll have a better understanding of the why and how crimes happen. You may expect to study forensic science, law enforcement, criminological theories, crime patterns in relation to age, gender and victims. There are some criminologists who specialize in elementary students, high school students and such. It's no surprise some specialize in children. In fact, some children have brought guns to school and been caught selling drugs.
ANNUAL SALARY
The annual salary of a criminal investigator is $80,540 as of May 2014. Recent graduates of bachelor's degree programs will typically start out toward the lower end of the scale.