CLASSIFICATION OF INVESTIGATIVE (SEARCH) ACTIONS IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

The article notes that in criminal proceedings, the main tool of knowledge, which takes place in the form of evidence, is investigative (search) actions. Their content consists of certain sets of operations for searching, fixing, removing and evaluating the traces left, which become procedural sources of evidence. In the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, the list of investigative (search) actions is given in an arbitrary order without taking into account their nature and mutual connection. This creates certain problems in interpreting their content, procedural and tactical rules for their conduct. The purpose of the article is to classify investigative (search) actions based on the nature of the traces of a criminal offense (material objects and ideal images in people’s memory). From a theoretical point of view, this will allow combining forensic science and the theory of evidence, and from a practical point of view, to correctly determine the sequence of conducting investigative (search) actions, taking into account their direction and mutual connection. The methodological basis is dialectical, system-structural, formal legal and comparative legal methods. The relevance of classifying investigative (detective) actions based on the nature of traces of a criminal offense, which are aimed at cognitive operations for their search, fixation, removal and evaluation, is substantiated. On this basis, it is proposed to classify investigative (detective) actions into the following groups: 1) aimed at identifying and fixing material traces of a criminal offense: inspection (area, premises, things, documents, corpse), examination (examination of the body of a living person), search (premises, areas of the area, person), taking readings of technical devices and technical means that have the functions of photography, film shooting, video recording, or means of photography, film shooting, video recording; examination of material objects; 2) aimed at identifying and fixing images in people’s memory – ideal subjective traces of a criminal offense: interrogation, presentation for identification (of a person, things, a corpse), examination of the inner world of a person (psychological, psychiatric, psychological-psychiatric examination); 3) during which material and ideal objects are simultaneously examined: investigative experiment, psychological examination using technical tools. It is emphasized that the above classification groups of investigative (detective) actions allow us to determine the features of cognitive and attesting operations that make up their content. They determine the establishment of certain procedural forms (prescriptions) and tactical rules (recommendations) for the application of methods for obtaining evidentiary information (observation, measurement, interviewing, comparison, modeling, fixation). It is noted that this is why when providing evidence, cognitive and attestation operations cannot be applied in an arbitrary order at the discretion of the authorized entity.