Igor Mikhailovich Komarov

The review presents the manuscript of the textbook “Criminalistics”, which is being prepared for publication. In the manuscript, the authors of the textbook, based on the established traditional approaches to criminology textbooks that have developed in Russian science, consistently present the material that is conceptually linked by the table of contents of the publication. It pays special attention not only to the already established and well-established educational knowledge, but also to the knowledge relevant to the current situation in which the law enforcement agencies of Russia function. Consistently in the sections of the criminalistics system in the textbook, the issues of criminalistic identification, forecasting, situational modeling and the basics of information and methodological use of criminalistics data in other types of law enforcement activities are revealed. The textbook reflects almost all the institutes of technical support of the investigation, including the issues of genetic identification of the individual, the study of computer information, the basics of the use of “artificial” intelligence in the investigation of crimes, expert activity in the investigation. Special attention is paid to the tactics of verbal and non-verbal investigative actions. For the first time, the issue of establishing causal relationships in the process of investigating crimes is considered. In the system of private forensic techniques, the authors have included both traditional and current methods of investigating crimes against public security and state power, terrorist and extremist orientation, official and official crimes, as well as crimes committed in the field of computer information.

Criminology has established categories and concepts, this is its language, which should be used correctly by all criminologists, both researchers of relevant issues and law enforcement officers. These categories and concepts have their own interpretation, which reflects their place in the system of forensic concepts, as well as their place in the structures of scientific and practical research. For this reason, their correct use ensures the objectification of conclusions based on the results of these studies. In modern criminology, there are objective problems associated with attempts to formulate the concepts of “crime mechanism” and “criminalistic characteristics of crimes” in research, their place in the system of concepts of the theory of criminology and methods of crime investigation. The study of the concepts of “crime mechanism” and “criminalistic characteristics of crimes”, the content of these concepts, allowed us to substantiate their correspondence in the system of concepts of criminology as a science. The established attitude indicates that these concepts are different in their essence and their elementary systemic content cannot, in one way or another, be suppressed. In the system of investigation methodology, the relation of these concepts can be expressed by the correspondence “crime mechanism” — criminalistic characteristics of crimes” due to the different methodological purpose of these concepts.

An analysis of recent scientific research indicates that authors have recently begun to neglect the language of forensic science, which has evolved over its existence as a field and a science. This trend negatively and significantly impacts the clarity of the presentation of forensic data obtained during research and undermines such an important element of the general theory of forensic science as its language, which, among other elements, is known to shape forensic science as a science. This tendency is particularly evident in the processes of formulating "new" definitions of forensic concepts and "refining" existing ones. Authors of these works neglect, or most likely are unaware of, the recommendations of classical theoretical sources addressing the methodology of conceptual development in science, which is detrimental to forensic science as a science. This important problem is outlined in this article