The Prospects of Using Certain Expert Knowledge in Crime Investigation

Expert knowledge is a specific sphere of establishing events, phenomena, facts and other circumstances that should be not only proven, but actually established in solving, investigating and preventing crimes. Subjects of criminal court proceedings turn to using various forms of expert knowledge at different stages of their work on a criminal case. Forensic examinations carried out in state expert institutions, verdicts of specialists, their conclusions, reviews and other types of reports of experts in the spheres of science, technology, arts and crafts are used as proof in criminal cases. However, they do not always have the same evidentiary value when assessed in court. This poses a certain problem for law enforcers, together with a lack of knowledge about cutting-edge expert methods or opportunities in some spheres of scientific knowledge. During crime investigation, the appointed forensic examination is usually chosen from a list recommended by special criminalistic methodologies. However, every investigation is highly specific depending on its investigative circumstances, and there appears a need for expert knowledge that is not included in a criminalistic methodology. It is connected with the fact that the elements of the criminalistic description of a crime (for example, the method of committing a crime or the mechanism of trace formation) do not have any constants. As it is difficult to establish all facts regarding the crime and the person who committed it only through investigative actions in a criminal case, it is suggested that expert knowledge in the spheres of medicine, microbiology, serology, immune genetics and other sciences should be used. This expert knowledge will make it possible to carry out the tasks of criminalistic identification and diagnostics in the investigation of various crimes. The author of the article pays special attention to the microbiome profile — a prospective trace in criminalistics. It is suggested that a complex study of a person through the contents of their microbiota should be carried out to identify and diagnose those involved in committing a crime. The use of the microbiome profile of a criminal in crime investigation will make it possible not only to establish a person’s connection with some trace at the crime scene, but also to carry out geographical profiling, i.e. establish the history of a person’s place of residence.