Vice Fashion – The Girls Of Forensics

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Hvana t-shirt, H&M jeans

And what do you go to school for?

First I went to McAllister’s and majored in Funeral Services. Now I’m at John Jay double majoring in Forensic Psych and Forensic Science. My uncle was an anthropologist, and he used to go on archaeological digs in Cyprus and all these cool places and come back with amazing finds from ancient cultures. That was always really interesting to me. Then, in high school, I discovered that I have a real knack for biology.

What’s your favorite class?

Developmental Psychology and Theories of Personality are pretty good. It’s interesting to see how little things that happen so early in your development can affect you in the long run. Then again, those classes really make you paranoid because you start diagnosing yourself with every disorder in the textbook and trying to trace the origins to all your neuroses. Not cool.

What’s your favorite gun?

I learned on my dad’s beautiful .30-06 Benelli, so I have a soft spot for it. I definitely prefer rifles to pistols. I like shooting as a sport—I shot a .25 air rifle for my school’s precision shooting team, and they’re fun. It’s kind of therapeutic because you really have to focus and block everything out to hit a bullseye on a two-inch target from ten meters away. But shooting a 9mm rifle is a totally different kind of fun.

What do you think of the NYPD?

I think that what we have here is definitely better than the blatantly corrupt police I witnessed in Armenia, where my family is from, and a lot of other ex-USSR countries.
 

Glad News sweatshirt, Meltin Pot tank top, Tom Binns necklace

What led you to study forensics?

I always had an interest in it. I remember being a Nancy Drew girl as a kid, and then, later on, I’d only read true crime books like John Douglas’s Obsession and mystery novels like Mary Higgins Clark’s.

And what do you do for a living now?

I recently graduated with a B.S. in Forensic Science and landed a position as a forensic technician. That’s the entry-level position for a person in my field. I assist forensic scientists in the examination of evidence, which consists of everything from a victim’s clothing to the weapons used in a criminal act. I also assist assist analysts in processing DNA evidence, which is usually the second part of testing in cases of rapes, homicides, and burglaries.

What’s your favorite gun to shoot?

When I want to be precise on my target and practice accuracy, I like to use a 22-caliber pistol. When I want more of a challenge, I use a SIG-Sauer .40. It’s a 40-caliber handgun that packs a lot of punch. It’s really fun shooting it with one hand.

What do you think of the NYPD?

New York’s a tough city to be a police officer in, so I give credit to those that are part of the NYPD.

J. Lindeberg vest, American Apparel bra and bodysuit, Meltin Pot jeans

You’re still in school?

Yeah. I’m majoring in Forensic Psychology. I want to understand why people murder or destroy. But I don’t think I want to make it into a living—it’s just something I like studying.

Oh, so do you have a job besides school?

I work in retail. American Apparel. You might have heard of it.

What’s your favorite class?

It’s math, and it always will be. I’m a big fucking dork.

What do you think of the NYPD?

I used to think they were all assholes. You know like, “Fuck the Police” and all that hood shit. Then I dated one a few times and I got to see that they’re really just lost children who want to do something with their lives and help a few people. You have to give them some respect because they have to be the good guys who help the people in need. But then they also have to be the bad guys who bust kids for hopping turnstiles when they could be catching sickos who touch little children. So I don’t know.

Meltin Pot shirt, jeans and belt model’s own

So… what’s your major?

Well, I graduated. I majored in Forensic Science with a concentration in Criminalistics at John Jay College. I was first inspired to study this stuff when I took a class called Human Origins at NYU, which touched upon some elements of forensic anthropology. Plus some forensics shows, like HBO’s Autopsy, got me interested.

What do you do now?

I can’t say where exactly I work, but I can say that I’m a lab technician at an eye bank. I help doctors find corneas for transplant. I do this by either importing corneas from other states, or actually recovering corneas from people who have passed away and whose family decided to donate. Occasionally, I recover whole eyes to be used in researching eye diseases.

Oh. My. Fucking. God. That is so cool.

Pretty much.

How does it work?

I look through the patient’s medical chart to make sure they have no medical contraindications to donation. Then I proceed to the body, which is usually in the morgue. I take blood samples and then clean the area around the donor’s eyes. Then I set up my sterile field, scrub, and perform an aseptic corneal excision (removing just the cornea) or enucleation (removal of the entire eye). I then reconstruct the eye to its original shape using a prosthetic eye cap.

You rule. Have you shot guns a lot before?

When I interned with the NYPD Crime Lab before I graduated, I shot a submachine gun in their shooting range. That gun scared the shit out of me; it was so powerful.