Our program emphasizes problem-based learning. The curriculum covers theory and best practices. It immerses students in real-world scenarios allowing them to discover the tools needed to solve a problem.
From day one, the program offers students a hands-on opportunity to learn basic investigative techniques, crime-scene processing and photography skills. We offer a wide range of unique courses, including interviewing, intelligence and death investigation. Our students particularly enjoy the clandestine-grave dig, blood-spatter lab and creating and solving scenarios with their classmates.
From the beginning, students can choose courses specific to their career interest. Students can take more investigative courses to prepare them for field work and life as an investigator. We prepare investigators to rapidly glean information from witnesses and physical evidence that might otherwise go unnoticed. Students interested in a laboratory career may take more lab-based and advanced science courses to prepare them for work in a forensic lab.
Our professors are active in private investigation and consulting work, so students learn their trade alongside professionals on the cutting edge of the field. Our students also develop an in-depth background in criminal justice, and many choose to add a criminal justice minor without having to take additional courses beyond the requirements of the degree.
Build your case, build your career. WVU Tech’s forensic investigation program will develop you into a forensic generalist with an extraordinarily wide breadth of knowledge and honed critical inquiry skills, unlike many forensic programs that create a specialist in a specific forensic discipline. This knowledge and skillset translates well to various careers.
Students may also choose to pursue advanced academic studies in fields such as criminal justice, forensic science or psychology.
Our graduates find career opportunities as:
This course covers various types of trace evidence and its collection, preservation and evaluation. You'll also learn about bloodstain pattern analysis for incident reconstruction.
Explore interviewing theories and techniques to determine emotional states from speech and body language, build rapport, prevent contamination, increase recall and reduce the risk of false confessions.
This class examines concepts, technical information and field-tested techniques and procedures involved in crime scene investigation. The course focuses on the initial responding officer, duties of the investigator and on various types of crime scenes.