At the beginning of the XX century forensic psychological examination was considered as a study of feelings and impressions, it was recognized as interesting, but the general state of development of psychological science endowed it with a subjective character. Meanwhile, lawyers, detectives and criminalists were inclined to actively introduce psychological knowledge into the process of disclosure and investigation of crimes.
Today, psychological expertise is widely used in legal practice. By applying special knowledge in the field of psychology, experts establish the characteristics of a person’s mental activity and such manifestations in human behavior that have legal significance and cause legal consequences.
The object of forensic psychological examination is a person in the genesis of his being, in the statics and dynamics of a certain time space, in ontogeny, as well as its functions and characteristics, reflected in man-made media (behavioral properties, individual psychological qualities, mental states and functions, features the course of the mental process).
Psychological expertise determines individual psychological characteristics, features of character, leading qualities, motivational factors of mental life and behavior; emotional reactions and states, patterns of the course of mental processes, the level of development and individual properties of the person under examination.
During the conduct of forensic psychological examinations, the Institute’s specialists use psychological methods known in the scientific practice and the author’s modifications, have been tested, and are selected taking into account the specifics of certain areas and subject-matter types of forensic expert research.
Specialists of the Institute conducted psychological examinations on the facts of a number of socially significant and resonant cases. Alikina N.V. and Irkhin Yu.B., experts-psychologists of KFI participated in the investigation of criminal events related to the activities of religious cults “The White Brotherhood”, “Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God”, “Renaissance”. For 15 years expert Yurii Irkhin worked as a member of investigative and operational groups was engaged in the search and detention of brutal serial killers, maniacs and pedophiles such as Anatolii Onoprienko, Serhii Tkach, Yurii Kuzmenko, Volodymyr Kutsykanenko, Serhii Dovzhenko, Mykola Baranov, Mykola Khatkevych and others.
During his professional career, Yurii Irkhin repeatedly visited places of execution of punishments, talked with convicts, studied their characters and compiled psychological portraits of suspects. Such communication helped the investigation in the search and prosecution of maniacs, who were still free at that time.
In 2015, based on KFI, were started forensic psychological examinations with the use of a computer polygraph. The purpose of conducting such examinations is to identify significant psycho physiological reactions that allow establishing the level and psychological nature of a person’s awareness or awareness in the content field of information installations that it produces or reproduces.
Most of the criminal situations in the investigations, in which the said expertise was assigned, characterized by the fact that the events under investigation, for example, on the territory controlled by the separatists, where the conduct of procedural actions are currently not possible; information established in criminal proceedings – contradictory; the certificate of the participants in the event is different. These are the situations most in need of a forensic psychological examination with the use of a polygraph, and allow you to determine the degree of probability of information provided by the person; the completeness of providing information to a person due to the circumstances of the event under investigation etc.
In general, the theoretical and practical psychological support of the jurisdiction process helps to answer many questions that are psychologically legal in nature. In addition, taking into account the social normative regulatory function of forensic assessments, psychological expertise can be considered as a psychological precondition for ensuring the protection of the rights of every person.
