DNA Analysis: Place and Role in the System of Modern Criminalistics

Abstract

This study presents information about historical aspects of the formation of molecular genetic analysis as a scientific discovery. The main (key) aspects of scientific achievements, which are at its core, are presented, which, having completed a long and thorny path from the search for the possibility of genetic modification of plants to guarantee a higher yield, today provide the possibility of further development and use of these achievements as a toolkit for forensic identification, with an extremely high percentage of probability. The place, role and significance of molecular genetic analysis in the system of modern forensic science is considered, the presence of real opportunities and legally justified grounds to ensure obtaining clear answers to the challenges and questions posed by the present are shown. Some key stages of the implementation of the DNA analysis method as an effective tool of forensic identification are given in historical accuracy. Attention has been paid to and taken into account the legislative regulation in terms of collection, recording, display and use of human genomic information in our country. From the methodological point of view, the research is based on a systemic vision, which combines the principle of historicism and objectivity from the standpoint of scientific knowledge, a critical-selective and structural-systemic approach regarding the literary base of the work and the reliability of information sources. The specificity and relative novelty of the researched topic presupposes the application of the comparativehistorical method, which in turn creates the prerequisites for tracing the path that begins its countdown from the moment of the discovery of the scientific concept of «DNA» to the forensic identification of biological traces during the investigation of crimes, in today’s conditions. The importance and effectiveness of DNA analysis, precisely as the newest forensic technique, the need to deepen the existing knowledge and methodological approaches, the use of advanced achievements of modern science and the experience of a number of countries that have put at the disposal of forensic scientists and even more advanced methods of researching genomic information – make it possible to come to a conclusion about the need for further development and formation of DNA analysis as a separate direction of forensic technology.