Ishchenko T. Investigation of domestic violence

The dissertation is one of the first in Ukraine monographic studies of theoretical and practical issues of domestic violence investigation. The paper develops the scientific basis of a specific forensic methodology for the investigation of domestic violence, which covers the following main structural elements: forensic characteristics; peculiarities of the initiation of criminal proceedings; circumstances to be clarified; typical investigative situations at the initial and subsequent stages of the investigation; investigative versions; peculiarities of carrying out separate investigative (search) actions; preventive activities of the investigator. The forensic characteristics of domestic violence have been studied revealing the content of such structural elements as: method of commission (taking into account the forms of domestic violence (psychological, physical and economic) in combination with methods of preparation and concealment (emphasis added to methods of preparing for psychological and physical violence, types of threats, as well as ways to conceal a criminal offense); situation (place and time of the commission); trace picture (material, ideal and digital traces); the identity of the offender (their biological, social and psychological properties and conditions were defined); the identity of the victim (the victims were classified into three groups depending on their family, kinship or close relationship with the offender, their social roles were clarified), and the correlations between them were determined. The problematic issues related to the initiation of the pre-trial investigation of domestic violence have been identified and analyzed, and some ways to solve them have been proposed: 1) granting the right to the prosecutor for initiating criminal proceedings under Art. 126-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, if a person due to their helpless state or for other objective reasons cannot independently protect their legitimate interests; 2) exclusion of Art. 126-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine from the list of criminal offenses for which criminal proceedings may be initiated in the form of private prosecution. The importance of expanding the list of reasons for starting a pre-trial investigation of domestic violence was also emphasized.