Legal use of special means in the investigation of official forgery of documents

The Constitution of Ukraine, the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the rule of law, p. According to the study of this direction, various scientists paid a lot of attention to the study of the problems of official criminal offenses and the use of special knowledge in general. However, no monographic scientific research has been carried out in Ukraine, which would combine scientific assets in the direction of special knowledge and official falsification and would reflect a comprehensive approach to the mentioned issues, despite the undoubted relevance of this topic and the need for practice, 89.6% of the respondents testified to the need for a comprehensive study of it. And although combating corruption was identified as one of the state’s priority areas, law enforcement agencies have difficulties in proving official forgery, which actualizes the need to highlight the possibilities of using special knowledge during the investigation of such facts. So, based on the experience of scientists, practical workers, taking into account changes in legislation and the specifics of official criminal offenses, we made an attempt to investigate the origins of the development of scientific opinion on official forgery, the possibilities of using special knowledge during their investigation, and to determine the main directions for improving their investigation. The closest to the topic of our research is the organization and tactics of the investigation of official forgery, which highlights: the content of the forensic characteristics of official forgery, its elements, such as the methods of committing the crime, the identity of the criminal, the object of the crime, a typical investigative picture; correlational dependencies between the elements of the forensic characteristics of official forgeries were revealed; types of methods of counteracting the investigation of official forgery in modern conditions (refusal to issue documents, items requested by the investigator, limiting the investigator’s access to information, refusal to provide samples for comparative research, influence on the investigator, in particular with the help of a defense attorney), the means of overcoming them are outlined; classification of means of investigative verification of information on the detection of signs of official forgery; the classification of circumstances to be established during the investigation of official forgeries, namely: general circumstances characteristic of the investigation of crimes in general, and special circumstances - the fact that the forged document belongs to an official one, the type and method of document forgery, the connection of the forged document with others and the consequences, that arose in connection with the validity of the document, etc.