About the course

 Name                                                         Degree in Investigation Sciences

 Place                                                          Faculty of  Formation sciences

                                                                   University of L’Aquila

  Classification                                               Psychological Sciences and Techniques

 Admission requirements                                 Five year superior secondary school diploma

 Duration                                                        Three years

 Number of credits                                           180

 University title                                                First level degree

 Academic qualification                                    Graduate

The degree course in Investigation Sciences intends to form graduates capable of management  of modern investigation strategies, security control in the prevention and repression of criminality, in order to contribute to safe guarding democratic institutions. The professional figure that will be structured by the degree course in Investigation Sciences will have the competence and the knowledge necessary to individuate cognitive, relational and behavioural problems, building a preparation of a strictly technical-investigative type on the basis of preliminary and irreplaceable knowledge of the organisation of behaviour.

The course structure proposed intends to give a scientific-applicative formation as well as a solid methodological-operative knowledge. In particular the graduate in Investigation Sciences will have acquired the basic knowledge characterising the different sectors of the psychological sciences and will posses a good knowledge of research methods relative to the measuring and treatment of data. The aspects that characterise the professional figure regard the study of cognitive processes, neurobiological and  neurophysiological substrata of superior nervous activity as well as the clinical method. To this specific formation we add various other competences: criminological, sociological, ethnoanthropological, historical, economical, juridical and institutional.In our idea investigation and intelligence are strictly interrelated: intelligence is relevant before (ex ante) and investigation after (ex post).

The graduate of this course will have professional activity as an expert in methods and techniques and also as an operator in defined roles in public and private administration. The course contributes to creating those professional figures who are indispensable in the light of the legislation on trial procedure, conforming also the universities to what normally happens in the more prestigious police academies (like the F.B.I.) where Investigation Sciences are in particular connected to the behavioural sciences. In confrontation with police academies the best that we offer is a huge humanistic, psycological, methodological preparation and a global perspective founded on co-operation. Above all, our students will be rational belivers in democratic principles who understand the meaning of a profession founded on the desire to saveguarde human lives.

Needing to adapt the University structures to an increasingly pressing demand for formation from the Italian society and to conform to international experience, the psychological field seemed the right choice to give both a basic preparation and a specific preparation for many investigation techniques. If one takes into consideration, for example, the problems related to the decodification of the confessions of collaborators of justice, the figure of the infiltrated agent, or the controversies generated by the problematical interpretation of judicial declarations given by minors in cases of sexual violence, it is evident that a traditional preparation of strictly juridical or technical type would be insufficient, whereas an adequate preparation in the basics of psychological science and techniques would be preferable.

Through the wide spectrum of planned formative  studies, seminars, practice in public and private structures, and a particularly difficult final exam, during the course of the three years the vocation of the graduate can reveal itself in many possible applicative fields (forensic medicine, criminal information technology etc.).Through the collaboration with the Faculties of Medicine, Science, Engineering, Economy, on the whole the University of L’Aquila can offer the graduate a formation in which it is possible to choose a course structure  in which the scientific component is significant (toxicology, pharmacology, ballistics, interception etc.), but not an end in itself. Our student must really believe in their professional vocation. The course is articulated in three years with a first  year widely informative on many investigative themes; in the second year applicative and operative themes become more relevant (through various formative activities within specific agencies);and in the third year particular significance is given to the final exam, which becomes not only the conclusive moment of the studies, but also the immediate connexion with the successive professional engagement of the investigators in the public and private organisations, the law courts, the police forces and services of surveillance and prevention. From the point of view of the number of officers involved, the security sector is, both in Italy and the rest of the world, in rapid development. We firmly believe in international co-operation: one of our most important goal is to constitute a network of academic institutions interested in investigation and intelligence matters.