The article describes the problems in legal proceedings that impede effective use of special knowledge of speech necessary to qualify offenses committed by means of speech actions. Among them the imperfection of the current legislation on forensic expert activity is mentioned, where there are no uniform professional qualifications and requirements for state forensic experts and persons who are not the employees of state forensic institutions and who are quite often involved in the conduct of linguistic expertise, authorship and phonogram examinations. It is stated that due to the lack of professional training in forensic specialties of such non-state experts, the quality of their speech analysis does not meet the need of the legal community and civil society in objective and effective examinations, the results of which could be used in trial. If the incompetence of non-state experts is revealed, their opinions are recognized as an inadmissible evidence, reexaminations are assigned to the state forensic institutions, which significantly delays the proceedings. It is proposed to legislate the mandatory certification for nonstate experts, to unify the procedure of additional professional education in the field of specific expert’s specialties for state and non-state forensic experts. In order to solve the problems mentioned above it is proposed to develop and implement a passport for each forensic specialty, a single nomenclature of forensic specialties corresponding to the types of forensic speech examinations, to unify additional professional retraining and professional development programs.

The article presents a detailed examination of typical forensic situations requiring various specialized knowledge for their resolution, primarily in the field of land management. The first of them stems from land disputes over the location, configuration and area of land, as well as real estate related to it. The article presents a list of issues to be resolved by a forensic land surveyor who should have specialized knowledge in the fields of land management, cadastre and registration of real estate as well as from related fields. The second situation is due to the conflicts related to the right of shared ownership on land, dwellings and household constructions located at the premises. Forensic research of this type is presented in stages. It is noted that in this situation both specialized land management and engineering knowledge is applied, which allows to define the type and kind of buildings located on the land in question, the degree of their physical wear and tear, the size of premises as well as other technical characteristics which collectively enable an expert to say whether it is possible to actually split the disputed house and grounds, to consider its options and present them graphically. The third forensic situation is aimed at reviewing the question of whether the building under study is an obstacle to the use of the land (unauthorized construction). A judge’s and expert’s purview in resolving such issues is defined. Particular attention is paid to field observations including search, detection, fixation and evaluation of the characteristics of the construction site located on the land plot. The fourth situation involves disputes over the cadastral value of land plots engaging both a forensic expert and an appraiser. It is shown that although both determine the value of the disputed property their activity differs significantly.

The article discusses specific features of the ways of concealing iatrogenic crimes and traces indicating them. Concealment of information, destruction of crime traces, falsification of medical records, staging and mixed methods of concealment form a system of ways to cover up such crimes. It is noted that there is a direct correlation between the methods of concealment of iatrogenic crimes and the severity of the consequences for the patient. The greater the harm done to the victim, the more sophisticated the concealment methods are used to evade criminal liability. The need is recognized to create specific research methodologies for the destroyed traces and ways and tools of destruction of physical sources of information as well as the methodologies for forensic handwriting and technical examination of the falsified medical documents, forensic computer analysis of the altered digital data related to the event under investigation.

The evidence of the ways of the iatrogenic crimes’ and their traces’ cover-up are used when initiating leads and planning the investigation, choosing the techniques of interrogation, search, examination and some other investigatory actions. The solution and effective investigation of iatrogenic crimes require knowledge of the existing ways of concealing them, as well as of the methods of their detection and exposure.

The article discusses the interaction of lawyers involved in criminal defense and the international forensic community, the principles of international cooperation in the field of forensic examination. Information is provided on forensic aspects of the activities of the United Nations, the European Criminal Bar Association and a specific case of the participation of fingerprint experts from a range of countries in a unique case on protection of an innocent victim of an expert error is described. The importance of taking into account the cognitive bias of experts and other subjective factors, as well as the role of lawyers in assessing expert opinions, is noted. The main conclusions and recommendations on the interaction of the forensic and advocate communities in current conditions are presented.

Contemporary approaches to the quality management in a forensic organization as well as the problems of the quality assurance system organization are analyzed. The main aspects requiring close monitoring from the Head of a forensic organization when making the policy of standardization and quality management system are considered. The conceptual approaches to quality issues enunciated in the international series of standards ISO/IEC 9000-2015 and ISO/IEC 17025:2017 together with the scope for their applicability to the forensic organizations are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the problems arising when designing and implementing quality management systems, their causes are revealed and some recommendations are given including those based on the foreign experience on enhancing management efficiency.

A sequence and the main stages of the commodity examination of jewelry and gemstones to determine their market value basing on the information contained in the materials given to an expert are proposed, characteristic features of gemstones expertise are highlighted. The legal framework for jewelry and gemstones trade in the Russian Federation, the regulatory requirements to their marking, the requirements to the consignment notes as well as the methods of expert investigation are outlined. A commodity classification for jewelry made of precious metals including those using gemstones is proposed. Particular examples of jewelry and gemstones examinations in different research situations are provided.

The possibility to apply the spectral-luminescent method using spectrophotometer Specord M40 with the attachment for fluorescence measuring to determine the nature of the basic alcohol in liquids produced using rectified ethyl alcohol has been considered. The analysis of model mixtures of aromatic amino acids (tryptophan, tyrosine, phenylalanine) has been performed to determine the characteristic bands in the luminescence excitation spectrum. The parameters of an adapted method for determining the nature of the basic alcohol (from food or non-food raw materials) of a liquid by comparative research of known spectrum of Lux ethyl rectified alcohol from food raw materials have been justified. The reasons limiting the application of the method have been analyzed: it is shown that the presence of food additives and flavors containing phenolic groups used in recipes of alcoholcontaining liquids can influence the luminescence of the basic alcohol significantly and, consequently, the identification result for the nature of the alcohol.

The issues of investigating the traces formed during attacks on the objects of the animal world are addressed. Any illegal activities leave a certain set of traces, which later can become evidence in a case. Research of the information contained in material traces of a violation against objects of fauna has its own problematics due to its evidentiary significance. This stems from the fact that the presence of material evidentiary base can testify to the event of the violation and the main circumstances of its commission including its object. The research of material traces and the mechanism of their formation according to the characteristics of the committed act was taken as a basis for the study. Attention is paid to the problems of preliminary research directly when inspecting the incident cite as well as to the matters of the particularities of the expert investigation of such objects. The article discusses the issues of relationship and effectiveness of expert research of objects containing traces to the qualification of the official conducting the investigation of the case. The need to form a unified approach to the study of trace material is indicated. This work may be of scientific and practical interest both to the preliminary investigation bodies and to the expert community.

Based on the analysis of the essence of forensic facial identification the article describes the framework of its methodological support considering the specifics of the research objects. The genesis of development of analysis methods for portrait images is briefly presented. Attention is paid to the features of the research objects with the advent of digital technologies and the use of software for work with images. Specific examples of forensic facial identification assigned in criminal and civil cases show the features of the research objects and the formation of new methodological approaches to the solution of both identification and diagnostic tasks.

Circumstances having a significant impact on the quality of the conduct of fire investigations in forensic organizations of various agencies are considered. This mainly follows from the shortcomings of inquest and investigation on this category of cases, inadequate number of verified and recommended for forensic practice methods and computer programs, rare use of existing programs, contradictions of legislative acts regulating fire and explosion safety of different objects, from some experts’ insufficient qualification. Absence of data banks on fires and forensic examinations conducted on them as well as of courts’ decisions is common; there is no experimental base to research the fire risk indicators and physical and chemical properties of substances and materials along with the characteristics of their ignition and combustion considering all the conditions of the fire.

It is shown that further development of fire forensics and its effectiveness will largely depend on the progress in addressing the aforementioned shortcomings as well as on the success of the academic pursuits and of undertaking the necessary engineering research.

The course of a forensic analysis of long-term storage food products (canned vegetables) has been reviewed. The significance of the stage of external inspection, examination of the label is shown. The expertise objects are finished products of the canning industry in factory package (vegetable marinades and first courses). The objects were examined for compliance with the appropriate GOST requirements and technical specifications for organoleptic characteristics, net weight, mass fraction of ingredients.

As a result of determining the organoleptic properties of canned vegetables “Pickled beetroot” the presence of individual pieces with black firm beet tissue has been detected which indicates violation of technological patterns of production. The presence of a particle of an outside impurity has also been detected that is a particle of paint coating based on alkyd binder and containing calcium carbonate as a filler which is unacceptable. The deviation of the canned vegetables net contents from the nominal amount indicated on the label meets the requirements of the regulations. For individual cans from the sample provided for analysis the experts have found non-compliance with the technical specifications for the rate “Mass fraction of vegetables from the total mass of canned goods”.

When examining the canned good “First courses. Borsch with fresh cabbage” it has been identified that the samples have various labels on the consumer containers which indicates the presence of samples from different shipments.

Special aspects of MP3-recordings technical investigation are addressed. The following features of formation and research of MP3 phonograms are explained: traces of MP3 coding in time and spectral domain, special aspects of MP3-files structure analysis, detection methods of re-coding of MP3-recordings, methods of group identification of MP3-recorders and MP3-codecs.

MP3 coding leaves certain traces of its usage. Due to the psychoacoustic model inaudible spectral components are deleted from the signal spectrum. Traces of psychoacoustic codecs usage are also clearly seen via dynamic spectrogram as rectangular areas of zero spectral amplitude. The methods discussed in this paper enable the investigating expert to detect the exact position of the MP3 frame in the signal by its properties even without any information from the file header. This method reveals the coding itself, multiple coding and also audio editing by the investigation of the periodicity of the extracted frames’ positions.

MP3 file format specifies the structure of the frame header providing a perfect instrument to detect any periodicity of any peculiarities of MP3 frames. The tool based on this approach reveals MP3 frames disorder caused by editing in the “digital” domain – manual deletion of audio information using HEX editor.

Professors’ Valentin Yakovlevich Koldin (Chair of Forensic Science of Law Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University) and Svetlana Arkad’evna Smirnova (Director of the Russian Federal Centre of Forensic Science of the Russian Ministry of Justice) exchange of opinions is given. The interlocutors address the problems of the present state of forensic expertise in our country, of scientific legal community’s special attention to forensic expertise, development of a coherent state scientific and practical system in this field. The most promising forms of relationship between investigative, judicial and expert technologies of ensuring justice are discussed. Examples illustrating the need to introduce the innovative regulatory mechanisms for forensic expert activity are provided.