Incident scene investigation in the system of typical investigative actions carried out in criminal cases on crimes in the shadow pharmaceutical market: Issues of increasing its efficiency

The author considers the problem of improving the effectiveness of the investigation of crimes related to the production and distribution of counterfeit, substandard, unregistered drugs, medical devices, dietary supplements, an essential aspect of which is the appeal to the tactical and forensic potential of the incident scene investigation. The study was conducted using empirical material, including 152 criminal cases on crimes regulated by Articles 235.1, 238.1, 327.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and other interrelated criminal law standards, as well as the aggregate of general scientific and specific scientific methods of scientific knowledge: systemic and structural, formal logical, comparative legal, inductive, deductive, etc. The study established that the acts of the designated group are characterized by common features contributing to the appropriateness of their consideration in the framework of the common forensic techniques. Therefore, in order to systematize the developed methodological and forensic recommendations, the author proposes her own term for the group of these attacks - “crimes in the sphere of the shadow pharmaceutical market”, and gives its definition. This was a theoretical and methodological prerequisite for the direct study of problems associated with the investigation of the scene in cases of crimes in the field of the shadow pharmaceutical market. The results of the empirical analysis led to a conclusion that the tactical and forensic potential of the investigative examination is not fully used. The evidence system is dominated by evidence that does not establish all the circumstances included in the subject of proof. There is often an unjustified refusal to investigate the scene of an incident when committing acts within the territory of an officially functioning pharmaceutical organization, for example, if the organization does not have a license to produce specific medicines. The connection of material evidence with the objective situation of the scene is poorly investigated, which inevitably contributes to gaps in the evidence base. The importance of establishing the relationship between violations of technologies of production, storage, transportation of drugs and the consequences in the form of harm to the health of consumers, etc. is underestimated. As a result of the study, the author presented methodological and forensic recommendations that enhance the role of investigation of the scene in the evidence system in criminal cases on the designated category of crimes. Along with the expansion of the idea of typical investigative situations that require ivestigation of the scene, it is necessary to pay attention to the identification of the following features: compliance of dimensions and other external signs of consumer packaging of drugs of the same name; compliance of information about the date of production, packaging, expiration dates on the packaging and on the bottle, blister, etc.; features of the attachment of the label; appearance and condition of pills in the product, etc. Fingerprints, footwear prints and other traces allow, along with the identification or establishing group membership, concluding about organized criminal activities, about involvement of specific individuals, their role in the formation and possession of professional skills.

Keywords

Authors

References