It's Not CSI: The Importance of Forensics for Social Work Education

When most people hear the term ‘‘forensic’’ they immediately think of the popular television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, or perhaps, other crime shows that feature highly sophisticated laboratory and computer equipment that quickly lead the police to identifying the perpetrator of a sensational crime. Needless to say, this is not an accurate portrayal of real-world forensic investigation, as recently evidenced by the alarming discovery of between 100,000–400,000 untested rape kits nationwide, with some sitting in police evidence lockers for many decades (Graham, 2014). Importantly, this is also not an accurate depiction of forensic social work, which rarely relies on laboratory evidence. And yet, forensic practice is fairly widespread in our profession, despite the fact that most social workers in forensic settings do not necessarily identify themselves as forensic social workers. Although there are a number of different definitions of what, exactly, forensic social work encompasses, in the narrowest sense it refers to the intersection of social work practice and the legal system. Maschi and Killian (2011), however, have argued for a broader and more integrative definition that not only explicitly includes our profession’s commitment to both social justice and human rights, but also stresses the collaborative nature of forensic social work. Forensic social workers are found in a variety of settings and perform diverse roles and functions including child and elder protection, child advocacy, child custody cases, termination of parental rights and adoptions, services to juvenile and adults in correctional institutions, court mandated mental health and substance abuse treatment, services for crime victims, community service for offenders and restitution to victims, human