The article considers topical issues related to the application of innovative technologies under examination of various new types of traces that remain on the scene of an accident. It highlights the relevant issues arising due to expert errors under examination of digital information displayed in footprints and under unification of terms. The ways of solving them are proposed as well.

Detection, examination and use of digital traces of crime are important tasks of forensic science. However, the effective use of these objects is impossible in many cases due to their destruction by an offender himself or other persons. For the first time ever this article deals with a detailed scientific systematization of methods for destroying digital traces for the first time basing on domestic and foreign experience and describes a general algorithm for forensic computer-technical expert examination of the fact of destruction of digital traces of a crime as well as lost information recovery. It seems appropriate to study the patterns of criminal destruction of digital traces in close connection with provisions and results of the development of the forensic doctrine of concealment of traces of a crime by domestic scientists in the “pre-digital era”. One of the relevant tasks is also the development of domestic technical and software tools for destroyed computer information recovery.

The article considers the relevant issues of forensic examination of sound recordings in terms of determining the speech material usability degree for speaker identification by voice and sounding speech. Factors affecting the degree of speech material usability are listed and analyzed. Special attention is paid to the comparability of the speech material on the original phonogram and on the sample phonogram. Methodological approaches to solving the issue of determining the degree of speech material usability are proposed. The rationale for drawing a conclusion based on the results of forensic speaker identification is provided.

Constant relevance of the issues of forensic experts’ training is linked to the role assigned to a forensic expert in court proceedings. The article gives an overview of the previous legal acts regulating the process of training experts in forensic science institutions of the Ministry of Justice of Russia. It is shown that many of their best practices are still being used today. Some of them were transformed due to changes in legislation. The author also pays attention to the issues of training experts in universities. The conclusion is made on the need of training forensic experts using both proven and new forms of education.

This paper studies the foreign experience of artificial neural networks (ANN) application in forensic handwriting examination. Given the active ANN implementation in various areas of public life, greater attention is paid to the integration of this technology into forensic activities. According to the opinion of a number of scientists and lawyers the issue of applying neural networks to forensic handwriting examination is particularly acute as they can significantly improve the objectivity of handwriting examinations.

The article gives a brief overview of history and current developments in computer technology use for handwriting examination as well as the connection and mutual influence of forensics and biometrics in this field which is particularly characteristic of foreign practice of forensic handwriting examination. Furthermore, the author presents examples of successful projects and experiments demonstrating effective use of neural networks to identify and verify an individual by his handwriting. The paper also discusses the prospects of this field and identifies the key challenges hindering, in the author’s opinion, the ANN integration in forensic handwriting examination.

The article considers a number of theoretical and applied issues related to forensic examination of electronic images of documents and in particular:

- comparative analysis of normative legal acts carried out with regard to regulation of certain aspects of the activities in terms of electronic images of documents’ application;

- indication of differences between electronic documents and electronic images of documents;

- formulation of definition of the electronic image of the document computer editing;

- description of factors affecting the possibility for identification of computer editing of document electronic images as a means of document forgery;

- description of the most typical file formats used for storing, processing and transferring electronic images of documents; examination efficiency demonstration of certain methods and tools by means of the file formate examples in terms of identifying the features that indicate the actions performed on electronic images of documents;

- characteristic of the operation principle and functional specifics of Grayscale, RGB and Lab color models used when working with electronic images of documents; capabilities demonstration of each one of them with specific reference;

- determination of sequencing and limitations of solving the expert task targeted at fact finding of computer editing of document electronic images and its specific

The article considers the basic mechanism and the construction details of lithium-ion batteries causing their fire and explosion hazard. It gives the results of fire-technical examinations carried out by RFCFS which confirm the possibility of fires due to the emergency operation mode of lithium-ion batteries. It is shown that use of an instrumental method for detection of the emergency operation traces left after fire on the battery fragments is not a sufficient reason to conclude that this operation mode caused the fire.

The article discusses the possibilities of appointing and conducting a forensic religious examination using the example of detection and investigation of crimes under Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It gives the analysis of judicial practice of charging with a criminal offense for such wrongdoing. The expediency of appointing and conducting a forensic religious examination or a complex psychological, linguistic and religious expert examination under investigation of crimes related to insulting the believers’ feelings is substantiated. The authors consider it advisable to contact representatives of confessions (clergymen who have completed an additional professional retraining program in this expert specialty) when appointing a forensic religious examination. In this case, the expert’s belonging to a certain religious group will indicate a high level of his special knowledge both theoretical and practical one. It is shown that the development of forensic religious examination on the basis of state forensic institutions, including involvement of representatives of religious denominations, can become a starting point for the development of scientific and methodological support for forensic religious examination.

The fracture pattern of polymer canisters found at an explosion site may contain information on the nature of an exploded medium – gas or an air-vapor mixture or a condensed explosive substance. Due to the fact there was no data in the available technical literature on the fracture pattern of polymer canisters’ explosions of various nature, experts conducted special studies under examination of one of the criminal cases the results of which are presented in this article.