Forensic Examinations During the Investigation of Threats or Violence Against a Law Enforcement Officer

Abstract

Forensic expertise, as a form of using special knowledge, is one of the most effective ways to establish the truth during the investigation of threats or violence against a law enforcement officer, especially given the often-limited amount of criminally valuable information in such proceedings, which conditions the relevance of this paper. The purpose of the paper is to establish the types and analyse the possibilities of forensic examinations that can be assigned during the investigation of threats or violence against a law enforcement officer. During the study, a set of scientific methods was applied – system, comparative legal, statistical, analysis, bibliographic, synthesis, induction, and deduction. According to the results of the study, a holistic view of the complex of forensic studies was presented, which: are most often assigned in the proceedings under consideration (examination of sound and video recordings, fingerprinting, examination of cold steel and firearms, forensic trasological examination), are mandatory if injuries are caused to the victim (forensic medical), can be assigned depending on the needs of the specific production (engineering and transport, phototechnical, forensic psychiatric examination); also, the types of examinations, the capabilities of which are not fully used by investigators (forensic psychological), were identified. The most important problems that arise at the stage of assigning expert examinations and can largely affect the quality of expert opinions were identified: violation of the deadlines for assigning expert examinations, incorrect formulation of questions to the expert, provision of insufficient quantity and/or poor quality of materials for research, incorrect definition of the type of expert study. It is emphasised that in the conditions of martial law and the expansion of the list of methods and tools of committing the investigated criminal offences in connection with it, there is a need for expert study, the objects of which are explosives and substances, various weapons, etc