Regarding the Issue on Multidisciplinary Forensic Examinations to Establish the Fact of Contact Interaction

Abstract

The authors of the article analyze theoretical developments on the status of multidisciplinary forensic examinations. Attention is paid to the analysis of the state of legal and methodological support in the appointment and conduct of multidisciplinary forensic examinations. On the example of multidisciplinary forensic examination on the establishment of the fact and circumstances of objects contact interaction, the authors have demonstrated the insufficiency of methodological support in this area and have substantiated the need to develop common and individual methods.
 Attention is drawn to availability of a practical need for widespread use of multidisciplinary forensic examinations within investigative and judicial practice. Opinions of scholars concerning the expediency and scientific substantiation of carrying out multidisciplinary forensic examinations for establishing the fact and circumstances of contact interaction are analyzed. The lack of a full legislative and methodological regulation in this area leads to difficulties in forensic expert practice and requires additional coverage and processing.
 Discussion in the scientific community as to the main aspects of determining the fact of contact interaction of objects has been going on for a long time. Some scholars strongly suggest that while interaction of two or more objects, several individual independent identification tasks are being resolved and the absence of at least one individualizing feature does not provide grounds for drawing a firm conclusion on the fact of contact interaction. We adhere to a different opinion of scholars and believe that a trace reflects both a particular property of a specific contact area and many interconnected properties of all objects in contact, and most important: the mechanism of trace formation. In the course of establishment of sufficient, unique set of generic (group) features and features of the contact mechanism, the individual complex allowing us to establish the fact of contact interaction of objects is formed.