Career as a homicide detective?
I'm 16 and have recently began pondering all that stuff about the future such as university and career paths. One of the possible careers that i've been interested in is a homicide detective. It seems like a pretty rewarding career and putting assholes away into prison sounds like a good thing to be doing. But i've got a few questions about it. How would I get to that job? Should I do a uni course in criminology or something likewise? Should I stay in Perth (where I live) or move to other places such as the USA? What are the requirements and what's the best way to go about getting there? All of these questions are going around in my head and I would really just like some good advice. Thanks to anyone who can help 
Comments
Okay, to be a homicide detective, most police departments in the U.S. are going to require you to work at least about 3 years as a police officer. After you have the 3 years experience as a police officer, you can take the exam to become a detective, be on the SWAT team, or work in Forensics. But, even if you pass, most of those jobs are given to officers who have 10 to 15 years experience, and once they have one of those jobs, they hang on to them until they retire. So, you might work 20 years or more as a police officer and never make it to detective.
I would NOT take any courses in criminology or criminal justice. Those courses are just a lot of psychology theory and are totally worthless when it comes to getting a job. Those courses will NOT help you get a job in any law enforcement field. You would be better off studying accounting or medical.
As far as a becoming a police officer, most agencies require a minimum of 2 years of college and then you can apply for the police academy. It is 12 weeks long and is extremely long and complicated even to get in to. They require a lot of tests, background checks, physical tests, etc., and you have to be squeaky clean with almost no criminal background record.
Click on this link for my town:
http://www.dallaspolice.net/recruiting/recruiting....
One more thing: If you got that idea by watching those crime shows on TV, you should know that they are NOT real life. They are totally FICTION! Some of those jobs on there are totally made up, don't even exist in real life. They are all glamourized just for TV. And all of that fancy equipment they have, such as those high tech computers, etc., they use in the crime labs, are also totally fake, just like those on Star Trek. They don't actually exist, except onTV.