Opportunities Abound in the Forensics Industry Today,

Opportunities abound in the forensics industry today, and the experts suggest that this trend is going to continue to increase in the future. The term "forensics," though, can be applied to a number of different fields; however, all of these disciplines share a common feature in that their work products are specifically used in courts of law or for other legal issues that can mean the difference between life and death in many cases. According to Black's Law Dictionary (1990), the term "forensic" means "belonging to courts of justice," while "forensic engineering" means "the application of the principles and practice of engineering to the elucidation of questions before courts of law" (p. 648). Genetic forensics refers to the diagnosis of otherwise unknown biological material based on analysis of proteins or DNA; this branch of forensics has resulted in hundreds of death row prisoners being freed after they were exonerated through such forensics testing (Avise, 2004). Likewise, computer forensics professionals are increasingly in demand today, and the demand is expected to continue to increase in coming years (Great Expectations Are Realized, 2000). Furthermore, computer crime task forces across the country are taking advantage of these new technologies to deal with the challenges in combating online crime, and private industries are using such forensics professionals to help them improve their own computer security systems (Piazza, 2003). In addition, the U.S. military has embraced forensics techniques in a major way (Braga, 2004). In this environment, identifying specific growth industries and trends assumes critical importance for private and public sector organizations alike.

Statement of the Problem

Today, the American justice system is a major growth industry, with an emphasis on forensics (Rauschart, 2001). According to this author, "The [criminal justice] field is changing rapidly, too, as technology quickly has assumed a crucial role in forensics, research and analysis" (p. 4). Both governmental agencies and private industry are using forensics professionals to help them achieve their organizational goals, but this has created a scarcity of qualified candidates. In this regard, Piazza suggests that recruiting and keeping qualified personnel remains a continuing challenge. Citing the example of a Secret Service human resource manager: "There are just not that many people out there in the job market that have the skills we're looking for," he says. "Oftentimes we have to train them in house, but once we get them where we want them, the private sector has an interest in the same skills, and so they're always trying to recruit our people" (p. 112). If this was not enough competition for qualified forensics professionals, the U.S. military is also a major user of forensics technology. Although the forensics systems and techniques used by the military are slightly different from their counterparts in other governmental agencies and the private sector, there is going to be a growing demand for qualified forensics professionals across the board in years to come (Braga, 2004). Furthermore, the demand for qualified forensics professionals is only going to be outweighed by the new opportunities realized through the application of increasingly sophisticated computer software applications specifically designed to assist in such investigations (Sartin, 2004). Therefore, developing a "snapshot" of the forensics industry as it exists today, what techniques and applications are commonly used, as well as an analysis of future trends, will help provide managers at all levels with a more informed view of how they can recruit and keep qualified forensics professionals in their own organizations, and how they can use them to their best advantage.