Modern Methods of Criminalistics Identification of Biological Traces in Investigation of Crimes

Abstract

It is often possible to solve complex problems of forensic identification in the investigation of serious crimes on the basis of detection and investigation of traces of blood, semen, saliva, epithelial traces, particles of internal organs on the murder weapon, etc. The article is devoted to advanced methods of expert research of biological traces based on the analysis of human DNA, characterized by high specificity for each individual, significantly exceeding the individuality and specificity of fingerprints. The author points out that uniqueness and genetic constancy of a living organism, increased resistance of the DNA molecule to environmental influences, its individual structural polymorphism and high impact of the methods of it s research make forensic identification of the object of research possible even in cases when it is impossible to use other research methods. In the author’s opinion, in the recent years the methods of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) examination have been also actively developing for the criminalistics purposes. Examination of mitochondrial DNA allows identifying the biological object, even in cases when an expert study provided only separate cells (cells of the epidermis, the samples of buccal epithelium – when scraping with a cotton swab from the inside of the cheeks), and the minimum of the investigated material. In addition, high mutation level of mitochondrial DNA significantly increases identification capabilities of genetic examination.