Science in service of justice: analyzing DNA, fingerprints, bones, bugs, and chemicals to figure out what happened at a crime or death.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Forensic Pathologist: A doctor who performs autopsies to determine how and why someone died. Typical pay $280k.
Crime Laboratory Director: Runs a city, state, or federal crime lab and its teams of scientists. Typical pay $125k.
Forensic Odontologist: A dentist who identifies people from their teeth and analyzes bite marks. Typical pay $165k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Forensic Science Technician: Analyzes physical evidence from crimes—DNA, fibers, drugs, fingerprints—in a crime lab. Typical pay $67k.
Forensic DNA Analyst: Extracts and compares DNA from crime-scene evidence to identify suspects or clear the innocent. Typical pay $72k.
Crime Scene Investigator: Photographs, documents and collects evidence at crime scenes for police departments and crime labs, keeping a careful chain of custody. Typical pay $62k.
Forensic Anthropologist: Identifies human remains from skeletons—age, sex, injuries, and sometimes identity. Typical pay $85k.
Forensic Toxicologist: Tests body fluids for drugs, alcohol, and poisons in death investigations and DUI cases. Typical pay $82k.
Forensic Chemist (Drug Analyst): Tests drugs and chemicals seized by police in a crime lab to identify and weigh them, then writes reports and testifies in court. Typical pay $70k.
Latent Print Examiner: Compares fingerprints from crime scenes with known prints. Typical pay $68k.
Firearms & Toolmark Examiner: Matches bullets and cartridge cases to the guns that fired them. Typical pay $75k.
Forensic Document Examiner: Examines handwriting, signatures, inks, and paper to spot forgeries. Typical pay $72k.
Forensic Entomologist: Uses insects found on bodies to estimate time of death. Typical pay $85k.
Bloodstain Pattern Analyst: Reads the shape and spread of bloodstains to reconstruct what happened at a crime scene. Typical pay $65k.
Forensic Science Professor: Teaches crime lab science at a university and researches new forensic methods. Typical pay $100k.
Trace Evidence Examiner: Analyzes tiny bits of evidence like fibers, hair, glass, and paint. Typical pay $70k.
Forensic Botanist: Uses plants, seeds, and pollen as clues to solve crimes. Typical pay $80k.
Forensic Serologist: Finds and identifies body fluids on evidence before DNA testing. Typical pay $68k.
Footwear & Tire Track Examiner: Matches shoe prints and tire tracks from crime scenes to suspects' shoes and cars. Typical pay $70k.
Forensic Taphonomist: Studies how human bodies decompose outdoors at research facilities called body farms, helping police estimate when someone died. Typical pay $80k.
Fire Debris Analyst: Tests burned material from fire scenes in a crime lab to find gasoline or other fuels that might show a fire was set on purpose. Typical pay $72k.
Starter: fastest way in
Medicolegal Death Investigator: Investigates deaths at the scene for the medical examiner—gathering facts before an autopsy. Typical pay $54k.
Autopsy Technician: Assists pathologists during autopsies at medical examiner offices and hospital morgues, preparing bodies, taking X-rays and collecting samples. Typical pay $45k.
Evidence Custodian: Stores, tracks, and protects evidence so it stays admissible in court. Typical pay $46k.
Forensic Photographer: Photographs crime scenes, evidence, and injuries with scientific precision. Typical pay $52k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.