Forensic determination of the worth of various objects involved in legal proceedings is essential for ensuring a fair trial. Determining the worth of mass-produced goods does not usually pose any difficulties. The situation is different for unique cultural values and items that are in particular demand among collectors, history buffs, and others, but are withdrawn from civil circulation for moral reasons.

The article analyzes the most significant aspects of the current market of cultural values, considers the methodological foundations of the forensic assessment of the worth of cultural values, mainly works of fine and applied art. The authors substantiate the necessity for a comprehensive forensic examination of cultural values due to the requirement for preliminary identification of the authenticity of items, their author, circumstances, and time of creation. The types of research necessary for this have been identified, such as traceological, documentary, materials analysis, historical, art, and others.

The paper shows that forensic assessment of the worth of the items withdrawn from civil circulation based on the data on their worth on the black (illegal) market or on the legal markets of countries where the circulation of such items is not legally prohibited is inadmissible. The prohibition on using information about events that occurred after assessing the worth of cultural property is substantiated.

The article addresses one of the current problems of forensic linguistics - the problem of a forensic linguist’s specialized knowledge. Basing on the study of the concept of “specialized knowledge” in legislation and the theory of forensic science and the practice of forensic linguistic analysis, the author demonstrates that a forensic linguist’s specialized knowledge is inhomogeneous in its nature. It is not limited to linguistic knowledge only but has a complex structure, which includes background knowledge, awareness of forensic science theory, and understanding of substantive and procedural law. It seems that at the present stage, such a structure of specialized knowledge of a forensic linguist most fully contributes to solving the tasks of forensic linguistics and implementing the principles of forensic expert activity regulated by Federal Law No. 73-FZ of 31.05.2001.

The fourth industrial revolution basing on computer and information technologies, various software, hardware is rapidly gaining momentum in the modern world. First of all, these include big data processing technologies, blockchain, Internet of things, virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing, printed electronics, artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology. Alongside the positive effects, it is expected that the revolution will lead to some negative social consequences, including the growth of intellectual and high-tech crime. The article aims to analyze the causes and conditions of emerging new crime resulting from Industry 4.0 and their effect on the development of forensic science.

The author highlights that the specific factors which will determine the future of forensic activity are: the appearance of creative and well-educated individuals, the emergence of “grey areas” in law, the development of global partnerships interested in international supranational rule-making, increasing of transnational crime. The rapid development of science and technology will require investigators and courts to promptly solve various specific scientific and technical tasks, eventually determining the objects and subjects of new forensic examinations, primarily from the field of information technology. Specialists predict a breakthrough in the development of cognitive computing and expert systems equipped with artificial intelligence, which has considerable potential in forensic science. There are signs of the shaping of a common forensic space, which will include not only existing elements of the institute of forensic examination (state and non-state institutions) but large industrial corporations, as well as the most active, technologically advanced individuals.

The article addresses the issues of the efficiency of forensic activity and its impact on the successful performance of forensic conduct. The author offers a systematic analysis of the processes of forming efficiency indicators for forensic activity and assessment criteria for a Head’s of a forensic organization activity. The paper also describes qualitative and quantitative indicators of the efficiency of a forensic organization when assessing the efficacy of a head’s performance, including by the efficiency indicators approved by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for forensic institutions of the system of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The author analyzes the probabilities of the negative efficiency of a head’s activity and its impact on expert conduct. The article determines the trends of the further research of the issues of improving the efficacy of forensic organizations’ activities by forming new criteria for assessing a forensic organization head’s performance influencing the quality of forensic conduct.

The article presents the main provisions of the sub-theory of standardization in the forensic expert activity, its place in the theoretical foundations of forensic expertology, and its relationship with other sub-theories of this science.

The author defines the concepts of the subject, the object of the standardization sub-theory in forensic activity, highlights its specifics. The article emphasizes the favorable impact on the development of domestic standardization in forensic activities of foreign experience in the implementation of theoretical developments on standardization, including the formation of a hierarchy of its standards. It is shown that for the development of the sub-theory of standardization in forensic science, it is advisable to use the results of the introduction of standardization mechanisms in the practice of accredited forensic laboratories under the international standard GOST ISO/IEC 17025-2019 “General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories”, taking into account the theoretical foundations of forensic science.

A natural object as an element of the system of accounting and registration activities has a dual nature, which determines the multidirectional functional purposes of its use. On the one hand, as an object of reference funds, it conveys a system of properties and attributes inherent in it as in an independent material object. On the other hand, a natural object acts as one of the forms of keeping forensic records, containing important information about a trace-forming object and the mechanism of trace formation. The currently existing theoretical approaches to the definition of a “natural object” do not fully consider its specificity and the variety of its constituent elements.

The article addresses the etymological, subject, and functional approaches to the essence of a natural object, determining its position and status in the system of forensic databases. The analysed features determine the possibility of using this form of information storage as an object of identification, diagnostic and situational expert research. The authors propose a “natural object” definition as a material source of primary (primary-reflected) objective information, containing a set of properties and features resistant to time factors that form derived information. The suggested definition provides a precise understanding of the considered analysed of a “natural object” for further use in departmental regulatory documents and scientific and practical works.

The paper aimed to ascertain the possibility of using the chemometric (discriminant) method when analyzing the results of mid-range IR spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for a comparative study of heroin to establish a common source of origin. The advantage of this method of comparative research in comparison to the existing ones is the reduction in the time for obtaining the result, the clarity and automation of the comparison process, which is essential for the comparative study of a large number of objects and the keeping of the corresponding type of forensic accounting. The paper shows that the results obtained by chemometric processing of data from two non-correlating analysis methods (IR spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) coincided.

The article provides a brief overview of the current state of the theory and practice of identifying laser printers and the results of research work aimed at discovering individual features of the printing mechanism of a laser printer.

The author analyses the scheme of a laser printer, describes the printing cycle, presents the main results of the analysis of a printer’s mechanism and the influence of its individual parts on the optical density of printing. The method of assessment of the optical density of the print by the digital image of the printed document is proposed, the complex of the necessary technical and program tools is described.

A hypothesis on the correlation between fluctuations in the optical density of printing of solid fills and fluctuations in the area of printed elements was put forward and confirmed; a visual representation of the study results in graphical form is presented, the relationship between the shape of the obtained graphs and defects of the printer’s components and parts is substantiated. The author proposes ways to detect the inhomogeneity of printing density on text arrays based on changes in the area of printed elements and processing of the results, which allows comparing distributions for texts printed in fonts of different sizes and styles. Based on experimental material, the individuality of the form of the obtained distributions and the possibility of their use as identifying features of the printing device are substantiated.

The article presents a specific methodology for forensic commodity examination of food products: expert analysis of canned meat and meat-containing products made of different raw materials. On a specific example from expert practice – conduct of a forensic commodity examination of a consignment of 12600 cans of meat product “beef stew” – the author shows the research program and its stages: sampling, establishment of the commodity affiliation of goods, analysis of the actual characteristics (markings, consumer packaging) of the tested products and verification of their compliance with the requirements of regulatory and technical documentation; measurement of quantitative indicators of products; examination of the submitted laboratory tests protocols.

The control over the circulation of plants containing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances (or their precursors) is one of the most critical aspects of the fight against drug crime. The forensic botanical examination uses classical morphological and anatomical analysis methods, which are not always informative enough when identifying species membership of shredded and degraded plant objects; similarly, they do not allow to establish their individual-specific identity. The molecular genetic methods of plant analysis and the comparative databases could serve as valuable tools for law enforcement purposes. In particular, in the production of forensic molecular genetic analysis of narcotic plants presented in powder, it is crucial to determine the taxonomic affiliation of the objects since this information affects the qualification of the crime. As a case the author presents the materials of an additional forensic examination conducted in the Russian Federal Centre of Forensic Science of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, the results of which had a significant impact on the qualification of the committed offense.

The article addresses typical expert situations arising in the psychological analysis of video materials from police operations. The author demonstrates that to solve the emerging issues, an expert needs specialized knowledge, especially in forensic psychology and linguistics. Furthermore, the efficiency of solving expert tasks in examining video materials of police operations for various categories of detected offenses depends on some organizational and methodological factors. The author also reviews typical expert errors associated with an incorrect recognition of the object of research, the outline of expert tasks, the choice of methods, and the limitations in the use of case materials by experts.

The article discusses a specific area of handwriting expertise – research of the completed short notes with deliberately changed handwriting. The author emphasizes that the expertise of these objects due to their small volume is a highly complex identification problem. The article pays special attention to short notes made in the Armenian language, highlighting and describing their specific features such as the degree of compression, slowing down the pace of movement with an unreasonable stop of the writing instrument, presence of blunt initial and final strokes. The slant is an essential factor in expert research of the short notes performed with the deliberate change of writing. Also, the change in the tempo leads to a sharp simplification of letter structures and incomplete execution of letter elements; simultaneously, complications of individual letters or their elements can be observed. The author analyzes all these statements in-depths using specific examples.

The article addresses the current state of forensic ecology in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Belarus. The author has analyzed the relevant publications and the data of the official websites of forensic organizations conducting this type of forensic examination. The article presents the methods used by forensic ecologists, highlights the problems they face.

The paper also reveals the unequal level of forensic ecology in Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Belarus; simultaneously, it shows that the need for its improvement is recognized in all these countries. Finally, the author notes that for such a development, mutual exchange of experience is essential, as well as the validation of methodological materials developed primarily in the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, with a view to their application in other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, especially when conducting forensic examinations in cases related to the cross-border negative anthropogenic impact on environmental objects.

Glock Inc. recently replaced the Enhanced Bullet Identification System (EBIS) with what Glock refers to as the Glock Marking Barrel. Casts and test fired bullets from thirty-five Glock Marking Barrels were evaluated for subclass and individual characteristics. It was determined that the barrels had subclass carryover from barrel to barrel manufactured using the same mandrel. However, identification of a fired bullet back to the barrel/firearm that fired it was still possible using specific areas of the fired bullet. Due to the fact that this type of barrel will be used in all models of Glock pistols, an examiner should be aware of which areas of a fired bullet may have a high potential for subclass characteristics.