You've probably seen a crime scene technician on a TV show or movie milling about in the background of a crime scene. But unlike their seemingly passive roles in media, crime scene technicians have significant responsibilities in law enforcement. They are in charge of collecting evidence on a crime scene, analyzing collected data, and providing detailed reports on their findings to officers and detectives.
In more detail, the tasks of a crime scene technician include processing fingerprints, analyzing physical evidence such as DNA, taking photographs of the crime scene, creating crime scene sketches, and ensuring all collected evidence is safely transferred to the crime lab.
Many crime scene technicians have a bachelor's degree in criminal justice or a similar field, but it is possible to attain this role with a high school diploma or GED. More than that, a crime scene technician must have excellent analytical skills, a keen eye for detail, and a strong grasp of forensics and critical thinking. Above all, they must have a strong stomach to analyze any type of crime scene in a professional manner--but this skill often comes with experience on the job.
How to Become a Crime Scene Technician
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a crime scene technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $24.98 an hour? That's $51,968 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 14% and produce 2,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Crime Scene Technician Do
There are certain skills that many crime scene technicians have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed detail oriented, math and science skills and problem-solving skills.
How To Become a Crime Scene Technician
If you're interested in becoming a crime scene technician, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 52.3% of crime scene technicians have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.4% of crime scene technicians have master's degrees. Even though most crime scene technicians have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a crime scene technician. When we researched the most common majors for a crime scene technician, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on crime scene technician resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a crime scene technician. In fact, many crime scene technician jobs require experience in a role such as police officer. Meanwhile, many crime scene technicians also have previous career experience in roles such as correction officer or patrol officer.
Crime Scene Technician Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a crime scene technician can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as security officer, progress to a title such as technician and then eventually end up with the title operations manager.
Average Salary for a Crime Scene Technician
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Crime Scene Technicians
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
2. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Private
3. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
4. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Private
5. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
6. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
7. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
8. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
9. University of Chicago
Chicago, IL • Private
10. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
Top Skills For a Crime Scene Technician
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 41.0% of crime scene technicians listed biohazard on their resume, but soft skills such as detail oriented and math and science skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Crime Scene Technician Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Crime Scene Technician templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Crime Scene Technician resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Crime Scene Technician Demographics
Crime Scene Technician Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among crime scene technicians, 49.4% of them are women, while 50.6% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among crime scene technicians is White, which makes up 63.3% of all crime scene technicians.
- The most common foreign language among crime scene technicians is Spanish at 85.7%.
Online Courses For Crime Scene Technician That You May Like
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An introduction to Computer Forensics, to demonstrate the process of going from the crime scene to the court room...
How Do Crime Scene Technician Rate Their Jobs?
Top Crime Scene Technician Employers
Most Common Employers For Crime Scene Technician
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baltimore City Public Schools | $70,551 | $33.92 | 1 |
| 2 | Gwinnett County | $68,714 | $33.04 | 3 |
| 3 | Aftermath Services | $67,510 | $32.46 | 19 |
| 4 | Community Home Health & Hospice | $65,169 | $31.33 | 1 |
| 5 | Polk County Sheriff's Office | $63,046 | $30.31 | 3 |
| 6 | Puerto Rico Supplies | $61,481 | $29.56 | 2 |
| 7 | Gainesville Regional Utilities | $61,473 | $29.55 | 1 |
| 8 | City of Orlando | $57,390 | $27.59 | 2 |
| 9 | NOPD | $54,256 | $26.08 | 2 |
| 10 | City of Tacoma | $53,362 | $25.65 | 2 |
Becoming a Crime Scene Technician FAQs
Crime Scene Technician vs. Crime Scene Investigator
A crime scene technician mostly focuses their time on analyzing crime scene evidence in a lab setting, while a crime scene investigator works the crime scene to find all of the evidence possible.