Forensic methodology for investigating crimes

2024 Author: Angel Austin | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:14

The forensic methodology for investigating crimes is a set of scientific concepts and recommendations formulated on their basis for law enforcement officers who carry out the disclosure and suppression of criminally punishable acts of a certain category. Consider it in more detail.

General provisions of forensic methodology

Recommendations developed on the basis of scientific concepts are concretized and applied in situations typical for certain groups of criminal offenses. The general forensic technique is thus realized through certain techniques. It develops the most effective ways to use recommendations in accordance with the characteristics of acts of one type or another. The methodology is based on the position that each crime is characterized by individual features. At the same time, they do not exclude, but, on the contrary, assume the presence of many unifying features of acts of one category. Respectively,there are also general approaches to investigating typical crimes.

Key destinations

Specialists identify the following tasks of forensic methodology:

1. Providing assistance to law enforcement agencies in the detection and suppression of illegal acts.
2. Analysis of the features of individual types of violations.
3. Studying and summarizing the experience of solving and suppressing crimes of different categories.
4. Develop evidence-based recommendations.

Sources

Forensic science (criminalistic technique in particular) is based on:

1. Law. Normative regulation is carried out primarily by the Constitution. The Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure act as sectoral acts, establishing the signs of acts, limits, the subject of proof, etc.
2. Science. Forensic methodology uses the provisions of forensic psychology and medicine, technical, natural and other disciplines.
3. Best practices for detection and suppression of acts.

Principles

The concept of forensic methodology reflects the key aspects of the work of specialists. Their activities are based on:

1. Ensuring the legitimacy of disclosure.
2. Specific recommendations given their typical nature.
3. The availability of private methods corresponding to certain stages of work.
4. Multiple recommendations. They are developed taking into account typical cases of investigation.
5. Ensuring the safety of participants in the process and otherspersons.
6. Structural unity of particular methods in relation to certain categories of acts.

Basic elements

The forensic methodology system includes two key components. The first contains the theoretical foundations, fundamental beginnings. The second includes private forensic techniques. They consist of recommendations intended to be used in the disclosure of certain groups of acts.

Theoretical foundations

They include the following components:

1. The concept of forensic methodology as a branch of science.
2. The history of the emergence and development of the discipline.
3. Principles and functions.
4. The concept and classification of private methods.

All of these elements act as a basis for developing model recommendations.

Special Items

The structure of the forensic methodology includes a set of scientific concepts and recommendations for organizing and conducting the disclosure and prevention of certain categories of acts. They are sections of typed techniques that summarize all the materials common to most disorders in a particular group.

Classification

Types of forensic techniques are distinguished according to different criteria. On the basis of criminal law, depending on the category of act, there are approaches to solving murders, thefts, assaults on sexual integrity, robberies, fraud and other violations, the composition of whichprovided for by the Special Part of the Criminal Code. According to the subject composition, methods of investigating acts committed by minors, the mentally ill, recidivists, persons in places of punishment, foreign citizens are distinguished. Depending on the time of the incident, there are approaches to disclosing events in hot pursuit of past years. In accordance with the place and circumstances of the crime, there are methods for investigating acts committed in extreme climatic or industrial and territorial conditions (at weather stations, at remote wintering grounds, etc.), in rural areas, in transport, in the city, in resort areas. According to the personality of the victim, there are approaches to the disclosure of attacks on foreigners, subjects suffering from mental disorders. Depending on the number of groups of crimes covered, the elements of which are provided for by the Criminal Code, there are specific methods used in the investigation of an act of a certain type (for example, murders), and complex methods of two or more categories of related violations (for example, robberies and robberies). According to their scope, the approaches are divided into full and abbreviated. The former are focused on the entire process of revealing the act, the latter are used at any stage.

Components of a private technique

Any approach used in disclosing a specific group of acts includes several mandatory elements. The forensic investigation technique contains:

1. Characterization of the type of offense and circumstances to be established.
2. Specificsinitiating proceedings and planning the initial and subsequent stages of the investigation.
3. Features of the first and further investigative measures.
4. The specifics of the interaction of employees. In particular, this refers to the peculiarities of the relationship between the investigator, operatives and other law enforcement officers.
5. The specifics of using the help of the media and the public.

Characteristic of attacks

The forensic investigation technique is built depending on the signs inherent in a particular category of acts. The description of the offense includes information about:

1. Item.
2. Typical methods of committing and ways of hiding traces.
3. Personalities of the "typical" perpetrator and victim.
4. General circumstances of the act (settings, place, time).
5. Typical conditions that have become the prerequisites for the commission of the offense.

The practical significance of the characteristic lies in the fact that information about the individual components of the act allows the employee to establish unknown elements with a high degree of probability, based on knowledge of the unifying features. In accordance with this, forensic tactics are chosen. The disclosure methodology is based on the most substantiated typical versions for a specific event in this category.

Circumstances

The facts to be established in specific groups of cases are determined in accordance with the characteristics of the compositions presentin the Criminal Code, as well as scientific concepts about the limits and the subject of proof. The forensic methodology for investigating crimes is aimed at identifying:

1. Events. In particular, the method, time, place and other circumstances are established.
2. Citizen's culpability in assault, his motives.
3. Factors influencing the nature and degree of responsibility, other signs characterizing the identity of the suspect.
4. Circumstances that contributed to the commission of the act and the concealment of traces.
5. Amount and nature of damage.

Initiation of production and action planning

The methodology of forensic research involves determining the most rational and effective sequence for the implementation of investigative, operational-search and other activities. This takes into account different typical situations and versions at each stage. At the initial stage, the general circumstances for most acts are:

1. The identity of the perpetrator is unknown.
2. Detention of a suspect red-handed.
3. Initiation of proceedings based on information revealed in the course of operational-search activities.
4. Provided a confession.
5. The initiation of the case is based on official materials.

Initial and follow-up actions

Forensic technique involves the division of the process of disclosure of the act into certain stages. It, in turn, predetermines the sequence of execution of investigativeactivities and highlighting initial and follow-up actions. All of them solve specific problems in the investigation. Initial actions contribute:

1. Verification about the event.
2. Clarification of the facts to be studied.
3. Collecting and securing evidence that for some reason could be lost.
4. Taking action to apprehend the suspect.
5. The implementation of measures to compensate for the damage caused by the wrongful act.

The actions that are performed in the following stages are focused on the further collection, study, verification and evaluation of the evidence obtained.

Intradepartmental interaction

The forensic technique is effective when the work of employees is coordinated in terms of goals, strictly corresponds to competence and is under the control of management. The Code of Criminal Procedure, the Federal Law "On Operational Activities", "On the Prosecutor's Office", "On the FSB", "On the Federal Tax Service" and other federal laws, as well as instructions and orders of the Prosecutor General, departmental legal acts regulating the organization of investigative activities act as the legal basis for intradepartmental interaction..

Principles of Employee Relations

Employees of various departments carry out their activities:

1. In strict accordance with the law.
2. When maintaining competence against the background of the leading role of the investigator in the process of organizing interaction and independent choice of means by other participants.
3. As planned.

The subjects of interaction are bodies and employees of inquiry, preliminary investigation, other law enforcement agencies, the prosecutor's office, the FCS, the FSB, including the border service. In addition, specialized inspections may participate in the process of disclosure of the act. For example, these may be units of the traffic police, the State Service.

Forms of engagement

Any forensic technique involves certain procedural and non-procedural actions. The first include:

1. Fulfillment by investigators of instructions and instructions of the investigator on the implementation of search and other operational activities.
2. Participation of a specialist in the process.
3. Providing assistance to the investigator by the body of inquiry in the performance of certain activities.
4. Conducting a forensic examination on behalf of an authorized employee.

Non-procedural actions include:

1. Joint planning for the disclosure of the act in general or specific events.
2. Formation of task forces and participation in their work.
3. Systematic exchange of information received by the subjects of interaction.
4. Discussion of the process and results of criminal proceedings.

Public participation

Forensic methodology includes various recommendations regarding the process of disclosure of acts. In many cases, public assistance is used to improve the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies. Those orother actions of the population are an additional tool to speed up the investigation. Various means are used to engage the public. The most popular are:

1. Speech to citizens with information about the act under investigation with a request to provide all the information known in the case. As a rule, information is provided at meetings of microdistricts, rural gatherings, and enterprises.
2. Media appearances. In particular, local TV and radio channels, print media are involved.
3. Showing photographs or identikits of wanted citizens on television, posting ads with information about the external features of persons.

Nuances

When involving the public in an investigation, the investigator must be guided by certain principles:

1. The population provides assistance only voluntarily.
2. The Investigator ensures the confidentiality of these preliminary events.
3. Members of the public involved in solving the act are guaranteed safety.
4. Citizens are not en titled to carry out independent actions without informing the investigator.

Murder Solving

Deliberate attacks on human life are considered serious crimes. They pose a great danger to society. This is especially true of the so-called contract killings. One of the signs of the forensic characteristics of these crimes is information about the methods of their commission and concealment of traces. Receptions can be veryvaried. For example, murders are committed with the use of weapons, by poisoning, strangulation, etc. At the same time, the criminals try to destroy the traces by hiding the corpse or its parts, moving the body to another place, dismembering or disfiguring the victim, and so on.

The use of one or another method of committing an act causes the emergence of a complex of typical traces. First of all, they include directly the corpse of the victim, means and instruments of assault, traces of the attacker at the scene of the murder, blood particles, etc. Usually such criminals are characterized by promiscuity, impudence, cynicism. They are prone to drinking alcohol. As for the victims, they often provoke the abuse by their own actions. For example, citizens on the basis of drunkenness enter into fights with others, to one degree or another, are associated with the underworld. Of course, a completely respectable person can also act as a victim. Information about the circumstances of the crime, in particular, such as the place, conditions, time of the incident, allows us to formulate versions about the mechanism of the attack in general, the perpetrator and his likely accomplices.

Key questions

In the process of investigating murders, the investigator must establish a number of circumstances. In particular, he needs to answer the following questions:

1. Was there a murder? What is the cause of death of a citizen?
2. Where, when, in what way and under what conditions was the offense committed?
3. Who is guilty of murder, what characteristics does he haveintruder?
4. If a crime is committed by a group of people, what is the role of each actor?
5. Are there circumstances that can mitigate or increase criminal pen alties?
6. Who is the victim? What characteristics does it have?
7. What are the signs and extent of the damage caused by the crime?
8. What were the killer's motives and goals? For example, it can be self-interest, revenge, jealousy.
9. What factors contributed to the crime?

Investigative actions

They are held in compliance with the tactical conditions and techniques discussed above. This takes into account the specifics of a particular act. The initial investigative actions carried out when solving murders are:

1. Inspection of the site.
2. Interrogation of witnesses/witnesses.
3. Assignment of a forensic medical examination (expertise).

As a rule, the initial action is to examine the scene of the murder and the corpse. During the examination, signs can be identified that will allow answering such questions:

1. Is the event a crime?
2. Does the location of the victim's discovery act as the scene of the murder? If not, then signs are established by which it is possible to determine where it was committed.
3. Who was killed and when?
4. How many intruders were present at the event? How did they get in and out of the crime scene?
5. What means and method was the murder committed?What measures were taken to cover up the traces?
6. What did the perpetrator leave at the scene? What marks can be left on his shoes, clothes, body, crime weapon, vehicle?
7. What information indicates the attacker's identity and motives?
8. From where could you hear or see what was happening?

External examination of a corpse is performed with the obligatory participation of a forensic expert. During the inspection, the time, place and method of causing death are established. The survey also allows you to determine whether the criminals moved the corpse or not.