Crime as an Object of Inquiry in Russian Criminalistics Aleksey Bessonov

• Author: A. Bessonov
• Position: Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Kalmykia (Elista, Russia)
• Pages: 112-127

BRICS LAW JOURNAL Volume V (2018) Issue 2

COMMENTS

CRIME aS an oBJECT oF InQuIRY In RuSSIan CRIMInaLISTICS

ALEKSEY BESSONOV,

Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee

of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Kalmykia

(Elista, Russia)

DOI: 10.21684/2412-2343-2018-5-2-112-127

This article deals with the denition of the subject and objects of modern Russian

criminalistics. It is aimed at sensitizing world public opinion to the necessity of inquiry into

the criminalistic essence of crime and encouraging criminalists to study new techniques

of crime investigation in order to mitigate risks and reduce errors arising in the criminal

investigation process.

One of the main objects that is constantly undergoing research in Russian criminalistics is

criminal activity. The subject of Russian criminalistics is the regularities of criminal activity.

When investigating crimes scientists are interested in the information that allows the

successful investigation of the crimes and determination of the oender. The information

about dierent types of crimes, which is necessary for crime investigation, is accumulated

in the criminalistic characteristic of crimes. The Criminalistic Characteristic of Crimes is

a scientic theory of modern Russian criminalistics that makes it possible to fully examine

the specic features of crimes of all kinds, i.e. the forensic nature (essence) of crime, the

system of crime elements with their characteristics, and the relationship between those

elements. In U.S. and European criminalistics, the regularities of criminal activity are not

dened as an object of study of this science. Yet, in the U.S. and European countries criminal

prolers investigating criminal cases study the criminal links between crimes to identify

crime series and crimes committed by similar oenders (or to determine co-oenders).

Keywords: crime; criminalistics; criminalistic characteristic of crimes; investigation;

objects of criminalistic science; criminal proling; subject of criminalistic science.

ALEKSEY BESSONOV 113

Recommended citation: Aleksey Bessonov, Crime as an Object of Inquiry in Russian

Criminalistics, 5(2) BRICS Law Journal 112–127 (2018).

Introduction

Science is a system of knowledge about the laws and basic properties of

a particular subject area, conrmed by obser vational and experimental data, and

embedded in a certain sign system – the language of science. The main functions

of science are to obtain new knowledge of the essence of the objects of scientic

research and keep track of reality.

The object of study of any social science is the specic phenomena of the surrounding

world (living and inanimate matter, human activity, natural phenomena, etc.).

All the same, the existence of any science as an absolutely independent eld of

knowledge becomes possible only when the essence of the object under inquiry is

cognized through the discovery of the regularities of its existence. In other words, the

essence of a certain science nds its expression in the essence of its subject matter.

The subject of a science is the objective regularities that make up the essence

of this or that phenomenon of the surrounding world studied by that science. The

subject of a science is a specic aspect of the real object identied by the system of

regularities and “replacing” this object in the research process in the form of its model.

Such regularities becoming laws of science represent a relationship of phenomena

which may be necessary, general, stable, repetitive, essential.

The main objects of Russian criminalistics inquiry are two types of human activity:

1) criminal activity (i.e. crime preparation, crime accomplishment, and conceal-

ment of a crime);

2) criminal investigation and prevention activities.

The additional objects of Russian criminalistics inquiry are:

a) the spheres of human activit y in which cer tain types of criminal acts are

committed, and therefore the elements of the abovementioned types of activity

are interconnected;

b) the unlawful act in the form of torts and administrative oenses1 which is not

a crime but, by its nature, is similar to criminal activity;

c) the knowledge and achievements of other sciences allowing the solution of

the problems of criminalistics.2

1 Кустов А.М. Научный взгляд на предмет и объекты российской криминалистики // Библиотека

криминалиста. Научный журнал. 2012. № 3(4). C. 63 [Anatoliy M. Kustov, Scientic Outlook on the

Subject and Objects of Russian Criminalistics, 3(4) Criminalist’s Library Scientic Journal 59, 63 (2012)].

2 Бирюков В.В., Бирюкова Т.П. Криминалистика: объективная необходимость возникновения,

соотношение ее объекта и предмета // Ученые записки Таврического национального университета

им. В.И. Вернадского. Серия «Юридические науки». 2014. Т. 27(66). № 3. C. 185 [Valeriy V. Biryukov &