Methodology of Modern Non-Identification Balistic Studies

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to determine the methodology of non-identification ballistic studies carried out in the investigation of criminal offenses related to the illegal circulation of firearms. The methodological basis of the publication is a complex of philosophical, general scientific and special methods necessary for the realization of the scientific goal and the fulfillment of the assigned tasks. The use of these methods ensured the thoroughness and reliability of the results of scientific research. Scientific novelty. The article deals with the structuring of the methodology of non-identification ballistic research carried out by experts in the framework of criminal proceedings. The essence of the structural elements of the methodology of diagnostic and situational examinations, which form the basis of non-identification ballistic studies, their main, essential provisions are highlighted. The use of the philosophical, general scientific and special instrumental methods of scientific knowledge described in the publication made it possible to highlight the controversial issues of the study of traces of the use of firearms during non-identification ballistic studies from the philosophical, legal and applied positions. Conclusions. On the basis of a scientific search on the problems of the article, a number of generalizations were formulated that consist in such provisions. The methodology of non-identification ballistic studies is based on the scientific principles of forensic ballistics (forensic diagnostics and situational analysis), the general theory of forensic examination by a system of provisions that determines the possibility of diagnosing the nature, conditions and properties of firearms, cartridges and traces of their actions used in the commission of a criminal offense, the regularity of determining the properties and signs of objects, as well as a set of methods and techniques for their expert study. Unlike the methodology of non-identification ballistic studies, the methodology for their implementation is a set of methods applied in a certain sequence (by research stages, the sequence of solving expert sub-tasks, etc.), each of which deepens a certain aspect of knowledge about the object submitted for the expert's research. The use of appropriate methods in the aggregate makes it possible to solve the questions posed for the solution of the examination. It is concluded that, along with the known general methods for conducting examinations, it is advisable to use special instrumental and auxiliary methods – microscopic, photographic, diffuse-contact, introscopic, profilometric, chemical, thermal reactions, mathematical, trigonometric functions - when conducting non-identification ballistic studies. The combination of the above and other methods determines the current state of non-identification ballistic research, fulfilling to a certain extent the role of methodological principles for diagnosing firearms, cartridges and traces of their action, as well as determining the main directions for the development of such research in the near future.

Keywords: methodology; method; firearms; ballistics; expertise; non-identification studies.