Criminal Justice

Criminalistics involves the collection and examination of items of physical evidence found at crime scenes such as firearms, ammunition components, footwear impressions, fingerprints, hairs, and fibers.The goal of criminalistics is to positively place a suspect at a crime scene using physical evidence.

UNT has an 18 credit hour criminalistics certificate program in which students learn how to recognize, document and collect items of physical evidence. Additionally, students are taught what the capabilities as well as the limitations are of criminalistics laboratories that ultimately analyze the physical evidence brought to them by scene investigators.

The criminalistics certificate program is specifically designed for future field investigators, detectives, and police administrators.Others who can potentially benefit from the program include future prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, journalists, emergency room nurses and physicians.

Click here to learn more about the UNT criminalistics certificate program.

The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the UNT Health Science Center also offers a Master's of Science degree in Forensic Genetics.

Useful links for students interested in learning more about the profession of criminalistics and the related career opportunities include:

• American Academy of Forensic Sciences
• Southwestern Association of Forensic Scientists
• The Association of Firearm & Tool Mark Examiners
• An Introduction to Forensic Firearm Identification
• The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors