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The Combined DNA Index System, commonly known as CODIS, is a tool used by law enforcement agencies to aid in solving crimes. Developed and maintained by the FBI, it is one of the largest DNA databases in the world, containing over 14 million offender profiles and over four million arrestee profiles, along with profiles from crime scenes, missing persons, and unidentified human remains.

Handheld devices are not new to investigations—consider the magnifying glass or the breathalyzer test—but their growing complexity and efficacy are changing the way modern investigations are conducted. Samples that previously needed to be sent to a laboratory can now be analyzed at the scene. Combined with an increasingly skilled investigative workforce, this cuts down on processing times and opens up exciting new possibilities for the fields of criminal justice and forensic science.

Digital forensics will continue to evolve rapidly in the coming years. Advances in AI, IoT, cloud computing, and even quantum computing are already opening up new horizons. While the technology increases in power and capability, it will fall on tomorrow’s digital forensics experts to assist in the accuracy, efficiency, and accountability of those tools.

Students may complete a bachelor’s degree, but not come to develop specific career goals until they have been out in the work world gaining experience and insight. This is where a graduate certificate in forensics science and crime scene investigation can come in handy.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a federal agency tasked with protecting human health and the environment. To accomplish that mission, it performs a variety of functions, one of which is the enforcement of environmental regulations and the investigation of potential violations. The cases that EPA investigates can have wide-reaching effects: they’ve helped enforce standards around clean air, clean water, and the ways hazardous chemicals are handled.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is far more than the sum of its parts. A domestic law enforcement agency with over 5,000 employees, it has a long history of forensic excellence. ATF’s first laboratory traces back to 1886 when two scientists convened in the attic of a US Treasury building. Today, the main hub of ATF’s forensic work occurs at the National Laboratory Center in Beltsville, Maryland, including the Fire Research Laboratory, National Firearms Examiner Academy, and one of ATF’s two forensic science laboratories.

We used to know them by heart – Columbine, Parkland, Sandy Hook, Pulse Nightclub, Paradise, Las Vegas – it’s a sign of the pervasiveness of mass shootings in America that one can no longer easily list the tragedies left streaked across the national psyche. The memories of people and places have been increasingly replaced with the data of numbers and percentages.

The advent of DNA evidence in the late 1980s heralded a new era for overturning wrongful convictions. At the same time, it began to reveal just how widespread wrongful conviction has been in America. The National Registry of Exonerations (NRE) has recorded over 3,175 overturned wrongful convictions since 1989, and over 27,200 years of freedom have been lost for those who served sentences for crimes they did not commit. Those are only the cases of which we know.