On the Logic of Forming the Structure of Crime Investigation Methodology

From the standpoint of modern criminalistics, the structure of crime investigation methodology acts, metaphorically, as a methodological instrument of identifying the mistakes in the criminalistic thinking of the subject of investigation, in different lines of inquiry and, in general, in the very process of proving. At the same time, the logic of its development should be based on rational abstracting, and the process of investigation should be viewed regardless of the specific forms of work aimed at investigating and solving crimes (investigative, operative search, expert, etc.). The methodological basis of this study is the general dialectic method of research cognition. The following general and special research methods were also used: system-structural, formal-logical, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, modelling, analogy. The author believes that the logic of scientific approach to forming the structure of crime research methodology can be described by singling out the following key stages: finding initial forensically relevant information about a crime; constructing lines of inquiry; following these lines; planning the verification of lines (planning the investigation); implementation of the plan to verify lines of inquiry (implementation of the plan of the investigation). A good understanding of the crime investigation methodology’s structure in its practical aspect, firstly, allows the subject of the investigation to navigate the system of consecutively solved tasks and, secondly, it provides instruments for identifying the mistakes of criminalistic thinking and external procedures for verifying lines of inquiry and the whole process of proving in general. The knowledge of the essence and contents of each such intermediary task in the structure of crime investigation work offers the subject of investigation an opportunity to choose adequate methods and means of solving it.