INDIANAPOLIS – Criminal justice students at the University of Indianapolis are getting a hands-on approach to learning the ins and outs of investigating crime scenes.
Before the future generation of forensic scientists get out there and start analyzing crime scenes for themselves, they need a little bit of practice. And that is exactly what UIndy students get to do at the university’s Criminal Justice Education Lab, which sits in an old home on campus.
Step inside the house and you will find a new crime scene each week. You will also find a team of dedicated investigators looking to crack the case. Only those investigators are students and that crime scene is an exercise.
“This isn’t like a crime scene, the only true aspect we are missing is actual evidence and an actual victim here,” said UIndy Adjunct Professor Doug Boxler, who said the lab is almost as real as it gets.
Boxler is a lifelong forensic scientist with decades of experience investigating real crimes in Marion County and Boone County. He also teaches UIndy criminal justice students.
“I teach students that when you are a crime scene investigator you basically have to tell a story,” Boxler described. “And we tell that story through our scene notes, the sketches, photographs and videos.”
Boxler’s students inspect every corner of his mock crime scenes. They do so while learning the ins and outs of data collection and evidence documentation.
“We do a lot of blood splatter stuff, fingerprinting, taking molds of our shoe prints,” described UIndy senior Jenna Taghikhani. “And obviously I wouldn’t do that anywhere else. So just having the opportunity in this class, it’s a huge advantage because not a lot of people would get to do this.”
The class even took advantage of the snow on Thursday so they could better understand how weather can sometimes add new challenges to an investigation.
Many of the scenarios and mock crime scenes are based on Boxler’s own experiences.
“I don’t like to bring an element of what you’d expect to see in a movie or a true crime show,” he said. “I use what I’ve seen in the real-life crime scene.”
Students said this challenges them. They also said it helps them to see things from a new perspective.
“I’ve learned how the little things matter,” said UIndy junior Gracie Tharp. “It’s what you don’t see when you automatically come into the room. This teaches us to look at the closest, the smaller things that we might not pick up on by just originally looking at it.”
Boxler and his students said this hands-on type of learning gives them a true blueprint of what to expect in the real world.
“I love learning,” Tharp said. “I love reading. But reading isn’t going to get me this experience. These mock scenes prepare me for the future.”
The Marion County Crime Lab even uses the lab for its own final exam for new hires.
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