Resources

Forensic nurses combine the nursing, forensic, and legal sciences to bring safety, medical treatment, and justice to their patients. Initially focused on victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, forensic nursing has grown to incorporate a wide variety of roles across the healthcare spectrum.

Whether you’re an up and coming forensic analyst or just someone who can’t get enough of CSI, chances are you have heard a thing or two about blood spatter analysis. This field involves using the physics of fluids to help to determine the events of a (usually) violent crime by analyzing the placement of the blood droplets at the crime scene.

The candy is a given, but the debate still continues on: does an actual uptick in crime occur every October 31st on Halloween? Turns out this can vary depending on factors as simple as the night of the week that Halloween falls on (Monday versus Friday, for example), and even the city itself.

Explore the most affordable online forensic science degree and certificate programs in 2026-2027 and learn which options can help students enter or advance in the field.

Podcasts like Serial set a new bar for the genre. Suddenly, true crime podcasts weren’t just guilty pleasures: they were Peabody-winning stories that could have an impact on precisely the topics that they were exploring.

For an unattended death, law enforcement must use a combination of investigative techniques and science to calculate how much time elapsed between the victim taking their last breath and their remains being found.

Forensic science is one of those fields that looks straightforward from the outside. You get the degree, you get the job, you work the cases. And somewhere in that mental picture, many aspiring forensic scientists might assume that certifications play the role they play in other professions, a marker of expertise, a signal to employers, a box to check on the way up.

Forensics is an exciting field no matter the era in which it’s practiced; there’s always a little more than meets the eye. To get a quick look at the history of forensics and the crimes it solved as well as committed, read on.