Сліди кримінального правопорушення як джерело інформації про обставини його вчинення

The article draws attention to changes in the nature and structure of crime in Ukraine. Over the past few years, the number of registered criminal offenses has increased by almost a third. This is happening in the conditions of a significant reduction in the number of the population in the part under control and an increase in the personnel of the law enforcement agencies, which are tasked with combating crimes. The investigation of criminal offenses is considered as an informational and cognitive process. The works of scientists who studied the processes of trace formation as a result of illegal actions, methods and techniques of working with traces of crimes are cited. Attention is drawn to the classification of traces in forensics. The works of scientists dedicated to the information support of the investigation, information technologies and information support for making procedural decisions are studied. The purpose of the research is determined, which consists in the analysis and generalization of the theoretical developments of scientists, as well as the norms of criminal procedural legislation, which regulate the process of informational and cognitive activities to solve crimes. It is noted that criminal activity is the antithesis of socially beneficial activity, which is subject to its own laws. It is characterized as professional, organized, corrupt, transnational, general criminal, economic, etc. For an investigator, a crime is always an event of the past. Its reflections remain in the form of traces on objects of the material world and in the memory of those people who perceived certain circumstances of such an event. The investigator’s task is to find traces of the offender’s interaction with the environment, study them and obtain the necessary information. Such a process takes place in a form prescribed by law and constitutes a process of proof. The conclusions state that the only source of information about the circumstances of a criminal offense and the person who committed it is its reflection in the surrounding environment in the form of traces: on objects of the material world; in the memory of people (psychophysiological reflections); in the information environment (digital footprints).