I just finished watching an episode of Criminal Minds, the thinking-man’s CSI. It involves the FBI’s Behavioral Science Division, a group of criminologists who investigate mass or serial murders. It’s a fascinating show, as you watch the agents’ minds work through a ton of paperwork, only to come up with one suspect who they can stop from continuing his murderous streak.
I thought that if I had it to do over, I’d like to be one of these criminalists. It’s a lot different from being a Flight RN, where the patients are “usually” alive and arrive at the hospital in better shape than they were in at the scene. But the patients aren’t always packaged and ready to fly. We were involved in extrications, getting into cars to reach the patients while the fire fighters took apart the car the get the patient out. We once rescued a girl from a submerged car, only to have her die en route to the hospital. So I guess I’ve been around enough dead people not to be skeeved out by the bodies that the FBI unit sees every day.
But Criminal Minds isn’t exactly like the FBI’s Behavioral Unit. John Douglass, one of the founders of the unit, wrote a fascinating book about his days as a profiler. It was filled with dead people, those killed by crazed serial killers. But the unit was successful, tracking Ted Bundy, the Green River Killer, and a host pf serial other less well known serial killers. And, the case Douglass is most proud of, was a serial killer they profiled and was caught and convicted of his crimes due to DNA evidence. Now, DNA is common place, but back in the 1980s, it was just beginning to be used at the FBI.
If I could, I’d get my bachelor’s degree in criminology and then a master’s in abnormal psychology. I don’t have the stamina or endurance to make it through the FBI’s Academy training, but at least I could be a part of an investigation. And that would be very cool.
