Distance Education: Graduate Certificate in Veterinary Forensic Sciences
Courses for the Graduate Certificate in Veterinary Forensic Sciences
The ASPCA Veterinary Forensic Sciences Program has developed a graduate certificate in Veterinary Forensic Sciences to be offered as a distance education program. Individuals can enroll in this program as either a post-baccalaureate student or a graduate student. Enrollment as a non-degree seeking student will allow a maximum of two classes to be completed. At that time, the student’s enrollment status must be changed to either post-baccalaureate or degree seeking graduate student.
This graduate certificate program in Veterinary Forensic Sciences consists of the following courses:
- Cruelty to Animals and Interpersonal Violence
- Animal Crime Scene Analysis
- Scientific and Legal Principles of Evidence
- Advanced Principles of Forensic Entomology
- Veterinary Forensic Pathology
The certificate program will be offered online via the University of Florida Forensic Science Distance Education Program.
Course descriptions:
Cruelty to Animals and Interpersonal Violence
The relationship between cruelty to animals and interpersonal violence has been substantiated by a significant body of work in the social sciences. Participants in this course will gain a fundamental knowledge of this connection, examine both qualitative and quantitative studies and case histories of the correlation between cruelty to animals, child abuse, domestic violence, elder abuse, and teen violence. Participants will learn how to recognize the connection between cruelty to animals and human violence and will review a variety of intervention programs for victims and at-risk or offending populations.
Animal Crime Scene Analysis
This course provides the student with formal academic training in basic crime scene processing techniques specialized for the analysis of crime scenes involving injured or deceased animals or scenes involving acts of animal cruelty. A focus will be on the recognition, documentation, and preservation of various types of physical evidence involving animal abuse, cruelty, neglect, and death.
Scientific and Legal Principles of Evidence
This course will focus on crime scene integrity, crime scene searches, chain of custody issues, courtroom presentation of physical evidence, and expert witness testimony. Emphasis will also be placed on the management of scene personnel, the media, victims, and suspects.
Advanced Principles of Forensic Entomology
Forensic scientists, crime scene technicians, and medicolegal death investigators are continually faced with establishing a postmortem interval (or time since death) in medicolegal investigations. Students will learn the proper evidence techniques for the documentation, collection, and preservation of entomological evidence as well as how to calculate a minimum postmortem interval from entomological evidence.
Veterinary Forensic Pathology
This course will introduce the student to the application of veterinary medicine to the forensic sciences. Course topics will focus on the interpretations of injury patterns, cause, manner, and mechanism of death. Upon completion of this course, the student will have a basic knowledge of the pathological documentation required for scenes involving animals, including recognition of abuse, crime scene investigation, and interacting with the legal community.
Click here to register for courses in the Veterinary Forensic Sciences online graduate certificate program.
