Digital forensics in the provision of crime prevention activities

The article is devoted to the consideration of issues of digitalization of social and other processes of existence and development of the state, society, its economic, industrial, communication, and information spheres, as well as the impact of digital technologies on crime and the activities of law enforcement agencies fighting against it. It was noted that the use of digital technologies brought a lot of positive things to social and industrial practice, facilitated the performance of many tasks in the production of products, in the field of management of state and industrial and social processes, expanded opportunities for high-quality and fast communication between people using computer systems and networks, the worldwide Internet. The use of advanced scientific developments and modern technologies for illegal purposes created difficulties for timely identification of signs of preparation of crimes, collection of evidence and implementation of evidence during pre-trial investigation. Certain difficulties in proving the guilt of criminals are due to the emergence of new and little-studied evidence – electronic and their sources, with the study of evidentiary information in digital form and its use in evidence. The science of criminology and its new direction - digital criminology - should help in the fulfillment of tasks to combat crime. These questions are widely discussed today by Ukrainian and foreign scientists and practitioners. Some of them consider digital forensics as a separate science that deals with the fight against cybercrimes and crimes that are committed using a computer. However, the authors of the article, relying on the opinions of domestic and foreign scientists, prove that digital forensics is not a separate science, but a direction of the traditional science of forensics, the provisions of which cover issues of forensic techniques, tactics and methods of crime investigation. Its developments are aimed at the search, research and use in proving electronic evidence and digital traces. The author’s understanding of the main tasks of digital forensics is formulated, the solution of which is necessary for the optimal integration of electronic evidence into the system of traditional evidence and ensuring their recognition by judicial practice.