Job Overview Eversince the ancient times, crime has been existent and is a major social problem more specially in the heavily populated areas and in underdeveloped and developing countries. What the society does is to hire police and law enforcement officials to detect and sanction the criminals to be able to protects the citizens from the criminal acts of robbery, violence, theft, murder and many others. These law enforcers are being assisted by the "Crime Analysts". Crime analysts are civilian workers specifically hired to analyze and study crime statistics such as the patterns of criminal behavior, motives to be able to improve the law enforcer's responsiveness and effectivity in fighting crime.
Education, Knowledge and Trainings Required
If you are aspiring to become a crime analyst, as early as high school, you can opt to take more subjects in Psychology, Research and Computers. The majority o the agencies that hire crime anaylst require a minimum of post graduate bachelor's degree to get in the position. Courses that can be taken include B.S in Criminal Justice and Criminology.
Skills and Abilities
The skills that are very important in this job are skills in data collection or gathering and analytical skills. In addition, they have to be inquisitive, method oriented and should possess a good memory. The patterns that they seek and look for as the basis of their recommendation to the law enforcers will come from the analysis of the crime. A good and accurate analysis will come from the bread and butter called the crime information and tips gathered through data collection methodologies. There are other states such as the Florida and California that offer a state-sponsored certification program for crime analysts that will add to the credential and caliber of the professional.
Duties
The basic duties of a crime analyst involves establishing a solid backround data of the crime from the range of sources such as the police reports, interviews withthe suspects and the people involved, statewide databases as well as some word of mouth tips from the community people. After the data collection, they seek for patterns of similarities and differences.
They also study factors such as demography, population density, the crime rate and the sources as well as the law enforcement condition and effectiveness. With the help of tactical, strategic analysis, they will be able to trace where the crimes are coming from and catch the criminals or ofenders. Also from these studies, they formulate long term solutions to what were analyzed to be able to improve law enforcement tactics and reduce crime rate.
Earnings and Job Outlook
The salary for a crime analyst varies according to the degree of caliber as well as to the years of experience. A crime analyst may earn a rage of salary from 15,000 to 36,000 U.S. dollars annually. Top crime analysts can earn around and over 70,000 U.S. dollars in a year. As the crime rate increases, the job outlook is expected to grow faster than the average as services of these kinds of civilians may be in demand.
Paula Hiz is a researcher and a human resource specialist who helps newly graduates, job applicants and post graduate professionals be aware of their job opportunities and available trainings for skills and practice upgrading.