Considering Criminal Psychology...Need help

[lokus]

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Hi everyone! My name is Chuck and I am a 26 year old male. I have a dilemma on my hands that I am going to think over for the next few weeks but please give me your honest opinion. I graduated from Rutger's New Brunswick with a degree in Business Economics and am currently finishing an online masters degree in Information Systems Management with the University of Phoenix. I left college realizing that my interests changed and decided to get my masters degree once I was hired by my company. I remember entering Rutgers as pre-med and as most students, I changed my major. I always cosidered being a forensic pathologist (as gross as that may sound). Anyways, I never did achieve what I wanted to and went into the masters program as a way to boost my career. I am having a difficult time within my company obtaining an IT Project Management related position and have been stressing myself out over this lately. I am beginning to think that life is about what you make of it. I want to be happy with the career decisions that I have made and not do something in a particular topic just because I am with a certain company. I want to be pleased with what I do for a living. It is more about pleasing myself than making tons of money.

Lately I have been thinking that I am quite disatisfied with my current job situation. I am thoroughly interested in criminal psychology and the study of why criminals do what they do. In particular this involves the study of serial killers and criminal profiling. My fiance even made fun of me when I picked up a BTK book in Borders. I thought to myself, "Geez, people must think I'm wierd". Anyways, considering my age and the amount of schooling I've done already, is it wierd that I want to pursue possibly an area of school that would make me happy? Investigating the human mind, whether by being a forensic scientist, detective or criminal psychologist, interests me. What should I do? Am I too old? Would this require entrance into medical school or just an undergraduate, graduate and doctorate degree? Thanks in advance.

 

[notdeadyet]

Luckily, psychology does not require medical school. You might look under the forum on SDN for Clinical Psychology.

You could go to become a Psychiatrist, which does require an MD, but for what you're looking into, it's probably not the way to do it.

 

[Julietcf14]

Hi everyone! My name is Chuck and I am a 26 year old male. I have a dilemma on my hands that I am going to think over for the next few weeks but please give me your honest opinion. I graduated from Rutger's New Brunswick with a degree in Business Economics and am currently finishing an online masters degree in Information Systems Management with the University of Phoenix. I left college realizing that my interests changed and decided to get my masters degree once I was hired by my company. I remember entering Rutgers as pre-med and as most students, I changed my major. I always cosidered being a forensic pathologist (as gross as that may sound). Anyways, I never did achieve what I wanted to and went into the masters program as a way to boost my career. I am having a difficult time within my company obtaining an IT Project Management related position and have been stressing myself out over this lately. I am beginning to think that life is about what you make of it. I want to be happy with the career decisions that I have made and not do something in a particular topic just because I am with a certain company. I want to be pleased with what I do for a living. It is more about pleasing myself than making tons of money.

Lately I have been thinking that I am quite disatisfied with my current job situation. I am thoroughly interested in criminal psychology and the study of why criminals do what they do. In particular this involves the study of serial killers and criminal profiling. My fiance even made fun of me when I picked up a BTK book in Borders. I thought to myself, "Geez, people must think I'm wierd". Anyways, considering my age and the amount of schooling I've done already, is it wierd that I want to pursue possibly an area of school that would make me happy? Investigating the human mind, whether by being a forensic scientist, detective or criminal psychologist, interests me. What should I do? Am I too old? Would this require entrance into medical school or just an undergraduate, graduate and doctorate degree? Thanks in advance.

Hey I have very similar interests (although I am persuing them more as a hobby) but I had this same personal delimea a few years ago. 1st off, you are not too old. 2nd, there are a few ways to do get into profiling. a) apply to the FBI (probably your best bet but you would have to pass a bunch of tests). b) get a PhD in clinical psychology. You could go for the masters but the PhD will get you a LOT further. Unfortunately, PhD programs in clinical psychology/forensic psychology are very difficult to get. 3) get an MD and go forensic psychiatry however in this option you will only be evaluating the serial killers, not tracking them down. Bottom line, if you want to get into profiling, you should try to get a masters in criminology and then apply to the FBI. I am sure their are other ways but I don't know what they are. You might call the FBI, act like you are a high school kid researching careers and ask them how you would go about becoming a criminal profiler. It sounds childish but it will probably work!

ANd if you are looking for some good books on serial killers my personal favorite is "The Serial Killer Files" by Harold Schechter. He has written a few books and also has a good reference book called "The encyclopedia of Serial Killers". At least, I think its by Schechter but I am not near my books to check. Good luck!

 

[notdeadyet]

Seems about half the folks I know interested in psychology want to track serial killers. Doesn't anyone go into PTSD or depression anymore?

That said, a buddy was also interested in this. A few thoughts:

* The FBI only uses a small group of psychologists/psychiatrists who are brought in as contractors for serial killers. If you want to go this route, figure on a good career of general forensic psychology/psychiatry first (counselling inmnates and fitness for trial being a good portion of it).

* To actually "join" the FBI, it's a very long process and requires (or used to require, this info is about five years old) either a law degree or three years experience in law enforcement. For the folks that want to do the serial killer thing (Behavioral Sciences?), there is a long waiting list and most folks end up working for a minimum of 10 years before being qualified.

Anyway, best of luck with your goals. Keep in mind that there serial killers make up a miniscule portion of the mentally ill and a minuscule portion of criminals. So they really have a very, very low priority in mental health and in law enforcement. Hopefully, you have a strong interest in law enforcement or general clinical psychology. After a successful career in either maybe you can seguey into working a bit with the serial killers.

 

[reggilexi]

hey

I'm an irish 2ndary school student who wishes to study criminal psychology in the united states when i graduate... what are the specific requirement needed?