Medicolegal Death Investigation, CAS

Contact:

Michael Sponsler, sponsler@syr.edu
Professor of Chemistry, Director of Curricular Programs for the Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute at Syracuse University
1-133 Center Sci & Tech
315-443-4880

Faculty:

Kathleen Corrado, Brian Ehret, Robert Stoppacher, Jonathan Adelman, James Crill, Ulrich Englich, James Hewett, Michael Marciano, Robert Silver, James T. Spencer, Michael B. Sponsler

Program Description:

The Advanced Certificate in Medicolegal Death Investigation is a 12-credit program that offers instruction that can be tailored to a wide variety of professionals who may either directly or tangentially become involved in cases of deaths that require investigation. In addition to those in the medicolegal field, this includes primary responders (police officers, paramedics, etc.), coroners, funeral directors, forensic scientists, and medical and legal personnel. Knowledge gained in this certificate will help these professionals to aid the investigation in death cases by preserving evidence, providing suitable documentation, and appropriately interacting with others at the scene or involved in the case. In the case of legal professionals, the knowledge will aid their interpretation of medical examiner reports and help them to know what questions to ask. Thus, this certificate program will help these various people become more effective in their own professions as it intersects with death investigation.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Define the field of forensic science and describe how it overlaps with their particular interests

2. Describe the relationship and interplay between forensic science and the legal system

3. Appreciate the importance of ethical standards and describe the means through which such standards are upheld in forensic science

4. Demonstrate how crime scenes are processed, how chain of custody is preserved and documented, and how medicolegal death investigators and crime scene investigators work together

5. Explain the duties of a medicolegal death investigator

Requirements:

I. Required Courses - 6 Credits

FSC 635 - Medicolegal Death Investigation I 3 credit(s)
FSC 651 - Forensic Pathology 3 credit(s)

II. Electives - 6 Credits Required

FSC 634 - Anatomy & Physiology for Forensic Medicine 3 credit(s)
FSC 653 - Forensic Toxicology 3 credit(s)
FSC 657 - Principles of Human Toxicology 3 credit(s)
FSC 663 - Bloodstain Pattern Analysis 3 credit(s)
FSC 667 - Forensic Photography 3 credit(s)
FSC 668 - Crime Scene Investigation 3 credit(s)
FSC 670 - Experience Credit 3 credit(s)
ANT 633 - Human Osteology 3 credit(s)

Note:

To count toward the CAS, FSC 670 should be for an internship in a medical examiner’s office, related to forensic pathology and/or medicolegal death investigation.

Transfer Credit:

Maximum of 3 credits

Part-time Study:

May be pursued

Degree:

Certificate of Advanced Study in Medicolegal Death Investigation