The researchpaper is devoted to the issue of establishing the forensic characteristics of the excess of power or excess of official powers by law enforcement officers, as well as the organization and planning of the crime investigation, the development of tactics of the proceedings and individual investigative (search activities) actions, as well as security measures. The issue of establishing the forensic characteristics of the excess of power or excess of official powers by law enforcement officers, in particular and in the part of its inclusion as an element in the forensic methodology, was investigated by such scientists as: R.S. Bielkin, V.M. Vartsaba, V.A. Zhuravel, S.Yu. Kosariev, V.L. Synchuk, V.Yu. Shepitko, A.V. Shmonin, M.H. Shurkhunov, B.V. Shchur. Nevertheless, this forensic characteristic, as of today, with the exception of certain research papers, which fragmentally, without a clear and in-depth analysis, considered certain aspects of forensic characteristics, remains undeveloped. The establishment of a criminal characteristic, and in particular the definition of its elements and the links between them, is the basis for the creation of a separate forensic methodology, which can serve as a mark for selecting the most effective ways of organizing an investigation. The above facts cause the author to choose the topic of the research paper.
In the course of the thesis research, the analysis of literary sources and interrogation of law enforcement officers of the pre-trial investigation was carried out, which allowed the thesis to identify the elements of criminalistic characteristics: 1) the personality of the offender; 2) forms and methods of committing and concealing a crime; 3) the situation (place, time, tools) of the criminal intent; 4) typical traces as a consequence of the realization of a criminal intent («trace pattern»); 5) the identity of the victim (victim of the excess of power or official powers by law enforcement officers), as well as to form the structure of a separate forensic methodology for investigating the excess of power or excess of official powers by law enforcement officers, which, according to the author, includes characteristics: circumstances to be ascertained; specifics of opening criminal proceedings and initiating an investigation; organization and planning of the investigation; typical investigative situations and versions of the initial stage of the investigation and the program of actions of the investigator to resolve and verify them; typical investigative situations and versions of the next stage of the investigation and the program of investigator's actions to resolve and review them; specifics of individual investigative (search activities) actions and security measures; counteracting the investigation and its means of overcoming it; preventive actions of the investigator.
The author of the thesis paid special attention to the offender as a special element of the forensic characteristic of the excess of power or excess of official powers by law enforcement officers. The problem of studying the personality of the offender from the point of view of such sciences as: criminal law, criminology, forensics has been researched and analyzed. The features that should be decisive for qualification in the actions of a person is the excess of power or authority, which include: the presence of a special entity, i.e. law enforcement officer, his age, sex, education, position, authority, nature of actions, which clearly go far beyond the rights or powers conferred on it, the motives and purpose of the conduct, have been determined. It has been found that in the current criminal law the classification of a person to the category of official is quite clearly defined, but the author stated that it is much more difficult to solve the problem of defining the concept of «law enforcement» due to the lack of a single normative legal act, which would provide a complete and exhaustive list of the law enforcement agencies with their competence and authority, in particular, does not have a clear answer regarding the classification of law enforcement agencies such as: the Internal Affairs and Customs Agency, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, State Guard of Ukraine, the departmental militarized protection of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, the National Agency for asset recovery, the State Bureau of Investigation, the State Environmental Inspectorate, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate, the State Executive Service, etc.
