In the administration of justice, forensic experts provide great assistance to the investigation and court. When the expertise is carried out, the material evidence and other materials are being investigated actual data and circumstances of various cases are established.
Expertise can be appointed by the decision of the investigator or the court’s decision, if there is a need for special knowledge. In some cases specified by law, they are mandatory. The expert’s conclusions in all cases have the same procedural significance with other evidence in the case.
Expertise is carried out individually or by a group of experts. In the other case, the carried research is called commission expertise. Forensic experts give opinions on their behalf and bear personal responsibility for them. Therefore, the conclusion of the commission expertise must be signed by all experts.
The subject and object of expertise are distinguished in the theory of expertise, which in turn, serve as the basis for differentiation of forensic expertise by types.
The subject matter of the expertise is fully determined by the questions posed by the investigator or the court. This means that the subject of each type of forensic expertise is facts that can be established with the help of special knowledge in a specific field of science and technology.
The objects of expertise are the material of evidentiary information, collected and provided to the expert by the investigator or court. They are the source of obtaining evidence (the expert’s conclusion) as a result of the use of special knowledge.
Experts of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise at a high scientific and methodological level ensure the activities of the investigative bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, the bodies of the prosecutor’s office, customs authorities and other institutions, and for these institutions are carried out a wide range of forensic, traditional and new type of expertise for more 90 expert specialties.
New directions of work are developing every year. Recently, research related to cybercrime as well as expertise related to the use of malicious software has become more popular. Extremely topical is expertise in the field of telecommunication systems and means, handwriting expertise, computer and technical expertise, explosive and technical expertise, construction and technical expertise, forensic technical expertise of documents and many others. For more detailed information about all types of research, please see the expert activity section.
