THE CONCEPT OF FORENSIC CHARACTERISTICS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE METHODOLOGY OF INVESTIGATION OF CRIMINAL OFFENSES AGAINST PROPERTY

In the article, based on the analysis of the opinions of scientists, the concept of forensic characteristics is defined, which meets the modern requirements of the practice of investigating criminal offenses. Forensic characteristics should be understood as a set of interdependent information on forensically significant signs of criminal offenses of a certain group (type), which contribute to the investigation through the activity of building and checking versions by conducting planned investigative (search) actions and other measures. As a theoretical model, forensic characterization consists of the following elements: the subject of a criminal offense; the method of committing a crime, which has three components: preparation, direct commission and concealment of criminal acts; a complex of characteristic traces remaining at the scene; characteristics of the offender and the victim. Depending on the type of criminal offense, certain elements may be missing. All elements of forensic characterization are interdependent and interconnected. The interrelationship of the elements of the considered scientific category is considered as a source of information on certain types of crimes, performs an informational function and constitutes a single information system, the use of which is possible by obtaining and analyzing individual elements and establishing connections between them. Attention is paid to the theoretical and practical value of forensic characteristics. For law enforcement officers who directly conduct the investigation, the most important thing is the practical use of forensic characteristics, especially at the initial stage of the investigation, when the investigator feels a lack of information about the event of the crime and the persons who committed it. Based on the analysis of the elements of forensic characteristics, the investigator puts forward versions, checking which determines the most promising direction of the investigation, organizes a targeted search for the criminal, missing property, and solves other separate tasks of the investigation. Attention is focused on the main directions of using forensic characteristics in the investigation of criminal offenses against property, namely for: identifying signs of a crime; proposing versions regarding: the criminal nature of the committed act, the identity of the suspect, the commission of a crime by a group of persons; detection of the place of concealment and realization of stolen objects of encroachment; determination of the range of possible sources of information about the crime; improvement of detection, fixation and removal of material traces of a crime during initial investigative (search) actions.