Forensic Support of Establishing the Identity: Actual Problems

The authors analyze the place of the forensic support of establishing the identity of a person in the general system of the forensic support of crime detection and investigation. They also justify their position on the broad interpretation of the term “forensic support” and conclude that it should not be extended to include the phenomena, processes, and activities not related to the subject of criminalistics. At the same time, it is stated that the task of establishing the identity, including the identity of a criminal, is one of the most important in the work of the law enforcement bodies responsible for crime detection and investigation. The analysis of the contents, the systematization of the features, and the establishment of the criteria of its differentiation from the related categories (“detection of a person”) allowed the authors to formulate the concept of establishing the identity of a person in criminalistics. In accordance with this, the authors determined the combination of criminalistic methods, means and recommendations used within the framework of the forensic support in general, and establishing the identity of a criminal in particular. They present arguments and formulate conclusions that reflect their position regarding the forensic support of establishing the identity through the use of biometric data and genetic information, and outline some problems of scientific, legal and organizational nature that should be solved in order to improve the effectiveness in these spheres. It is noted that the established practice of departmental forensic registration and record-keeping at different levels, where the systemic connections between elements are sometimes lacking, does not meet the requirements of modern practice, does not ensure the implementation of all directions of forensic registration, and does not correspond to the opportunities offered by information technologies both now or in the future. It is suggested that the approaches to forensic registration should be changed through building a unified system of record-keeping, where the object of registration and the source of information will be the person, presented as an aggregate of forensically relevant features.