How Washburn University is adapting to investigative forensics in criminology

From 19th century Scotland Yard to the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial, investigative forensic science has been an expanding field that is now at the forefront of criminology practices.

"For a long time, crime scene investigation has been seen as mostly a cop job or a police job," said Kimberly Gerhardt-Whiddon, a professor at Washburn University. "But we are noticing the trend across the nation, and it's been this way for decades, is that law enforcement agencies are moving the crime scene team out of the law enforcement agency and into their crime labs."

Because of the growing field, Washburn University has expanded is criminology program to include a new forensic investigative degree.

What is investigative forensic science?

Unlike other degree paths at Washburn, investigative forensic science will focus more on the natural sciences needed for forensic work.

Created by Gerhardt-Whiddon, she wanted to enable a career path that was more suitable for the real-life needs for such investigative facilities as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

"So, then we see crime labs who have these science requirements in their job description, that the students aren't necessarily meeting those requirements because they don't have specific service in that forensic investigation degree," Gerhardt-Whiddon.

For this degree, students will take courses like human biology or botany, so they can get more hands-on experience using sciences for investigation work.

Unlike other forensic investigative degree paths at Washburn, this degree focuses on the natural sciences as opposed to the criminology aspect of the degree. For the science degree, there are 24 credit hours worth of courses outside the department, including human anatomy, chemistry in everyday life and introduction to forensic chemistry.

Investing in the expanding forensic field to satisfy law enforcement needs

In 2014, KBI partnered with Washburn to build a $55 million forensic science center and developed a professional relationship between the Washburn investigative students and KBI.

Now, 10 years later, Washburn is investing in this new degree.

The forensic investigative program as a whole has more than 100 students. Gerhardt-Whiddon said she would estimate about half of those students will want to move over to the new degree.

"I'm kind of going to play it by ear, for lack of a better word," Gerhardt-Whiddon said. "But I think there will be a lot of interest."

She said her goal is to sit down with each student and determine with them whether transferring to the new degree is what's best for them and what kind of work they want to do in the future.

"This is kind of a degree pathway that I want to have one-on-one conversation with students to kind of figure out what their expectations look like career wise before pursuing the forensic investigating sciences degree," Gerhardt-Whiddon said.

What does it take to create a new degree?

Gerhardt-Whiddon spent about two years building the forensic investigative science degree.

She said she went to an accredited forensic investigation science institute when getting her education. One of her first steps was to visit her alma mater and see if creating this degree at Washburn was feasible.

Once that was determined, Gerhardt-Whiddon outlined the degree process, periodically ensuring it allied with the educational guidelines for this kind of degree. She then reached out to such local agencies as the KBI and others in her field to get their input.

One element Gerhardt-Whiddon needed to further incorporate into the degree was the science behind DNA because it has become more prominent in investigative forensics.

"So, DNA has a very strict educational layout that you have to meet in order to do that and so, we kept running into that rope a lot," Gerhardt-Whiddon said. "You know, students come to Washburn because of KBI, and here we are having a hard time getting students internships with them because of that one lab class or that two or three lab classes, that would be more beneficial to them."

After all of Gerhardt-Whiddon's drafting was complete, she presented the degree to the university to be reviewed and get approval from her department and the Washburn University Board of Regents.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: How Washburn University is adapting to investigative forensics in criminology