VICTIMOLOGICAL DATA IN THE STRUCTURE OF CRIMINALISTIC CHARACTERISTICS

The paper deals with the problem of recording data on a victim’s identity included in the content of criminalistic technique of investigation of certain crimes. The relevance of the study is caused by the practice of investigating grave and especially grave crimes, as well as by the contemporary development trends in the theory of criminalistic characteristics towards the substantiation of its “victim’s identity” element. The author highlights the issue of recording victimological data when investigating crimes related to a certain mental state of a crime victim formed by an offender. The paper states that the unobvious nature of relations between an offender and a victim hampers the investigation of crimes against life and health, sex crimes, violent lucrative crimes, etc. The author shows the necessity of implementing criminological analysis in the system of scientific methods of criminalistics, focuses on the fact that victimity should not be considered in isolation from other data on a victim’s identity (general demographics, social-psychological data, behavior characteristics, data on social relations and material status, business occupation information, etc.). The study justifies the applicability of victimological analysis in criminalistic technique and proves the advantages of statistical approach over the descriptive approach in the process of study of a victim’s identity when investigating grave and especially grave crimes. The author gives recommendations on the determination of major elements of a victim’s identity. In the conditions of adversary judicial procedure, the author recommends using an active state of a victim in terms of provisioning data for victimological analysis. The author highlights that the victim’s normal mental state should be considered as the essential data on a victim’s identity and offers an extended principle of formation of demographics, social-psychological data, as well as behavioral characteristics of a victim’s identity.