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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.56.08.9
How to Cite:
Kryvoruchko, L., Kucher, O., Husieva, V., Timush, I., & Timush, D. (2022). Legal and organizational principles of person
identification by appearance during the investigation of criminal offenses in Ukraine. Amazonia Investiga, 11(56), 82-90.
https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.56.08.9
Legal and organizational principles of person identification by
appearance during the investigation of criminal offenses in Ukraine
Правові та організаційні засади ідентифікації особи за ознаками зовнішності під час
розслідування кримінальних правопорушень в Україні
Received: September 22, 2022 Accepted: October 20, 2022
Written by:
Larysa Kryvoruchko35
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6635-2381
Oleksii Kucher36
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3742-2154
Vlada Husieva37
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8614-1573
Iryna Timush38
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8090-4450
Diana Timush39
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8555-1770
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to determine the legal
and organizational basis for identifying a person
based on appearance during the investigation of
criminal offenses in Ukraine.
In order to achieve the goal of the article, the
authors used methods of synthesis and analysis.
Statistical methods were also used, with the help
of which the problems that make it impossible to
carry out portrait examinations based on the
materials of video recordings and photographs,
as well as other revealing ones, are defined and
displayed in percentage form. The logical
method and the method of generalization were
used when formulating the conclusions of the
conducted research.
The authors have determined the legal and
organizational aspects of presentation for
identification, conducting portrait examinations,
and identification based on subjective portraits.
Recommendations for improving the current
criminal procedural legislation have been
formulated. The factors that negatively affect the
implementation of the researched methods of
35
Leading Researcher of the Department of Scientific and Legal Expertise and Draft Law of the Scientific Institute of Public Law,
Doctor of Law, Kyiv, Ukraine.
36
Head of the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine, Candidate of Law, Kyiv, Ukraine.
37
Professor of the Department of Criminalistics, Forensic Science and Pre-medical care of Kharkiv National University of Internal
Affairs, Professor, Doctor of Law, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
38
Professor of the Department of Economic, Air and Space Law of the Faculty of Law of the National Aviation University, Professor,
Doctor of Law, Kyiv, Ukraine.
39
Postgraduate of the Faculty of Law of the National Aviation University, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Kryvoruchko, L., Kucher, O., Husieva, V., Timush, I., Timush, D. / Volume 11 - Issue 56: 82-90 / August, 2022
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identification of a person based on appearance
are determined.
Keywords: identification, signs of appearance,
recognition, portrait examination, photo work.
Introduction
Identifying a person involved in criminal
offenses is one of the most difficult tasks of a pre-
trial investigation. The identification of the
offender can be done in different ways. The
choice of a specific set of identification methods
is determined by the investigative situation that
has developed at the relevant stage of the
investigation and the set of collected source
information.
Law enforcement agencies use both procedural
and non-procedural methods to identify the
offender. The difference between these methods
is that the methods of implementing procedural
methods are clearly regulated by criminal
procedural law, and the results of their
application can be obtained procedural sources of
evidence. The use of non-procedural methods of
identification does not involve obtaining
evidence, but helps to solve search problems.
Under such conditions, the information obtained
will be indicative.
Currently, the results of such implementation,
genotypic methods of personal identification, as
well as methods of personal identification on the
basis of appearance, gait, speech, etc. are being
actively implemented in practice. The active
development of these methods of identification
and their wide application in the field of criminal
justice is due to the rapid development of science
and technology.
Our attention is drawn to the methods of
identifying a person by appearance. The analysis
of the materials of investigative and judicial
practice, as well as the work of scientists, shows
that this process is not without a number of
difficulties. The facts of falsification of evidence
in order to bring a person to criminal
responsibility are quite common in the practice
of law enforcement agencies. The scholar notes
that in most cases this is justified by the lack or
lack of funding. This argument is unconvincing
given the damage (both material and moral) that
can cause incorrect identification of a person in
criminal proceedings. Because it will be much
greater than all costs development of appropriate
methods of identification (Izotov, 2016, p. 108),
as well as compensation to the victim for illegally
prosecuting him.
The prosecution also uses non-procedural
methods of identification in criminal
proceedings. Therefore, we propose to determine
the legal and organizational basis for the
identification of a person by appearance during
the investigation of criminal offenses in Ukraine,
in order to prevent their violation and promote
the formation of unambiguous practices of their
use.
Methodology
The authors of the study used methods of
synthesis and analysis, which allowed to
determine the legal and organizational aspects of
identification of a person by appearance during
the investigation of criminal offenses in Ukraine.
Statistical methods were also used. They allowed
to identify problems that make it impossible to
conduct portrait examinations on the basis of
videos and photographs and to display them as a
percentage, as well as other illustrative ones. The
logical method and the method of generalization
were used in formulating the conclusions of the
study.
Literature Review
Scientists have been studying the problems of
human identification by appearance for a long
time. The scientific basis for the use of features
of human appearance in the investigation of
crimes was laid in the 70s of the XIX century by
French criminologist Alphonse Bertillon. A.
Bertillon called his system "anthropometric
identification" (Sanchez, 2012). In 1904, a
student and follower of A. Bertillon, professor at
the University of Lausanne Rodolphe Archibald
Reiss published a textbook "Verbal portrait.
Recognition and identification of personality by
the method of Alphonse Bertillon". In this book,
the scientist accompanied the photographic
fragments of images of parts of the face with
schematic drawings of its individual elements
(Mathyer, 1984). The contribution of these
scientists is that they laid the fundamental
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foundations of the doctrine of "habitoscopy
(habitology)".
Among the researches of Ukrainian scientists, it
should be noted the work of those who followed
a comprehensive approach in the study of
procedural methods of identification based on
appearance. Given that for a long time the most
tried and tested was the identification of a person
on the basis of appearance, which was carried out
during presentation for identification, the work
by I. Zholnovych was considered innovative, in
which the scientist explored theoretical problems
and practice of forensic description of the person
researched on appearance (Zholnovych, 2007).
Some provisions of this work are still relevant for
the theory of Ukrainian criminology. Recent
work also includes a thorough study of the tactics
of identifying a person in an imaginary manner
during presentation for identification.
B. Bezkorovainy carried it out (Bezkorovoyny,
2018).
Scientists are currently conducting research
aimed at simplifying the procedure of identifying
a person by appearance and obtaining more
accurate results. Scientists are proposing to
introduce new methods, such as iris
identification. Scientists are coming up with
ideas to simplify the process of recognizing a
person. In some countries, for example, it has
been proposed to provide recognition by
videoconference (Bertovsky, Ryzhkova &
Ryzhkov, 2021, p. 21). According to the analysis
of modern research of domestic and foreign
scientists, it should also be noted that they are
quite actively discussing the ideas of research on
the identification of a person by the peculiarities
of gait, speech, etc. (Khakhanovskyi, &
Chashnytska, 2020; Ibn Khedher, El-Yacoubi &
Dorizzi, 2017; Khan, Farid & Grzegorzek, 2021).
Gait identification is a new biometric modality
for automatic visual observation and monitoring,
as gait patterns correlate strongly with the
subject's personality. The amount of research on
the identification of people on the move has
increased dramatically over the past two decades
due to several advantages. These techniques do
not require active cooperation with users and can
be carried out without their participation. In
addition, gait is difficult to simulate, and
identification can be accomplished by analyzing
low-resolution videos and using simple
instruments (Khan, Farid & Grzegorzek, 2021).
At the same time, it should be emphasized that
currently in Ukraine such methods of forensic
examinations are not registered, and therefore the
results of these studies cannot be used as
procedural sources of evidence, which highlights
the need to study other ways of identifying
people.
A significant contribution to the issues we study
is made by scientists who are developing and
improving methods of identifying people who
are in crowded places (in the crowd) on the basis
of video recordings. Modern approaches allow
solving this problem by using software that
allows the process of identifying people as
individuals, avoiding the fact that they often form
groups or move in crowds. Interestingly, in some
countries, such as Italy, the visual identification
of a person appearing in the fixation area of
various cameras, ie video footage, is defined as
the re-identification of a person. At the same
time, under such conditions, scientists try to
study not only the video itself. They also use
information provided by others who were also in
the camera range and in close proximity to the
person to be identified. It can provide appropriate
visual context for improving the efficiency of re-
identification of individuals in the group (Lisanti,
Martinel, Micheloni, Del Bimbo & Foresti,
2019). Because the videos used to identify a
person may be of poor quality, in order to
effectively improve facial recognition on video,
scientists are exploring various technologies to
improve this process. For example,
representatives of Guangzhou University suggest
synthesizing facial images based on 3D facial
modeling and blurring. In the proposed
algorithm, they first used a high-resolution 2D
front face to build a 3D face model, then several
virtual faces with different poses were
synthesized from the 3D model, and finally some
degraded face images were built from the
original and virtual faces. through the blurring
process (Hu, Peng, Wang, Yang & Li, 2017).
Somewhat similar techniques are used again to
identify a person by gait (Huynh-The, Hua, Tu &
Kim, 2020).
The developments of these scientists and some
provisions of their research confirm the fact that
the identification of a person because of
appearance was and remains a topical issue. We
propose to focus our efforts on determining the
legal and organizational basis for the
identification of a person by appearance during
the investigation of criminal offenses in Ukraine.
Results and discussion
The process of identification is a common skill
that has largely gone unnoticed in psychology
and cognitive neuroscience. Neuroscientists who
study the process of identifying a person
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remembered from a previous meeting indicate
that the identification of another person is due to
activation differences in the medial prefrontal
cortex, left lower frontal cortex, left and right
lower parietal lobe, precuneus (inner part bark),
lateral occipital crusts and thalamus (Tholen,
Schurz, & Perner, 2019; Gupta, Punj & Pillai,
2022).
At the same time, the processes that take place in
the cerebral cortex and provide the possibility of
human identification of others occur as a result of
our perception of certain properties of the
appearance of others. These include
individuality, relative stability and reflexivity.
The individuality of a person's appearance is its
uniqueness, the difference from the appearance
of others, which is determined by the complexity
of a person's appearance, a huge number of
features of appearance and their variants. Signs
of human appearance are classified on various
grounds. As a rule, in the legal literature, all
features of appearance are divided into three
groups:
− Anatomical (characterize the external
structure of the human body: height,
physique, head shape, facial features, etc.);
− Functional (motor, speech, etc., which are
manifested externally, including signs of
behavior: gait, posture, gestures, facial
expressions, voice, habits, etc.);
− Signs of clothing, shoes, etc., which were
worn constantly. They are also called
concomitant.
The relative stability of appearance is largely due
to the fact that anatomical features of appearance
change only after significant periods of time. The
reasons for this may be disease or medical
intervention (eg, plastic surgery).
Reflexivity means the ability to accurately reflect
the signs of appearance on a variety of media,
namely: material and ideal.
Procedural methods of identification of a person
based on appearance are the identification of a
person during the investigative (search) action, in
particular during the presentation of a person for
identification, as well as during the forensic
examination - portrait examination. We propose
to consider the legal and organizational
principles of their implementation, because they
are a guarantee of a positive result.
Identification during the investigation of criminal
offenses is relatively infrequent in the
investigative practice of Ukraine. The main
subject of the identification process in this case
is an eyewitness. Eyewitnesses who were able to
provide a detailed description of a person's
appearance and later identify the perpetrator
were found in only 19% of the criminal
proceedings we analyzed, recorded in 2021 in the
category of serious and especially serious crimes.
As a rule, these crimes are committed under
obvious conditions. These mainly include
hooliganism, hooliganism, robbery, robbery,
extortion, etc. Under such conditions, presenting
a person for identification is a key investigative
(search) action, based on which the accusation is
based, a person is identified in the commission of
a criminal offense. The results of this
investigative action, which are similar in
probative value, can not be obtained in any other
way. This is because the information stored in the
eyewitness's memory is a perfect reflection.
The essence of presenting for identification is to
identify in an imaginary way. The structure of
this process, scientists determine as follows: 1)
the psychological mechanism of recognition; 2)
forensic mechanism of identification; 3) the
nature of the object of perception; 4) the integrity
of the process of forensic identification; 5) the
identity of the subject of recognition; 6) the
nature of the formation of mental image; 7) the
results of recognition; 8) procedural registration
of results (Bezkorovoyny, 2018, pp. 82-83).
The identification process is possible if there are
legal and factual grounds. The legal grounds
include:
− the presence of a person who will recognize;
− the protocol of her interrogation, in which
the testimony about the signs and
peculiarities of the person, about the
circumstances under which she perceived
her was recorded. In accordance with Part 1
of Art. 228 of the CPC of Ukraine, before
presenting a person for identification, the
investigator, prosecutor preliminarily finds
out whether the person who recognizes can
recognize this person, interviews him about
the appearance and characteristics of this
person, as well as the circumstances under
whom she saw this person, about which she
draws up a report. If a person states that he /
she cannot name the features by which he /
she recognizes a person, but can recognize
him / her by a set of features, the protocol
shall indicate by which set of features he /
she can recognize a person (Law of Ukraine
No. 4651-VI, 2012);
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− the presence of a person subject to
identification. It is prohibited to show it in
advance to a person who recognizes and
provides other information about the signs of
this person (Law of Ukraine No. 4651-VI,
2012);
− the presence of outwardly similar
persons (extras), who will be presented
together with the person of
identification.
The factual grounds for presenting for
identification include the presence of the
investigator's data, which allows to draw a
conclusion about the necessity, expediency and
possibility of conducting this investigative
(search) action (Hrynenko, 2020). After all, the
grounds for conducting an investigative (search)
action are the availability of sufficient
information indicating the possibility of
achieving its goal (Law of Ukraine No. 4651-VI,
2012).
As for the organizational principles, they are
most often presented to identify the suspect. The
need to present a suspect to establish the identity
arises in cases: when he takes responsibility for
the crime, but the evidence in the case refutes this
fact; when the suspect is issued by another person
or does not have identity documents; when the
victim or witness saw the person who committed
the criminal offense and can recognize him. In
cases where the persons to be involved in the
identification were previous acquaintances or
had a case of eye contact not related to the event
of a criminal offense, this action is not allowed.
The current criminal procedure law does not
contain such an indication as to the procedural
status of the person to be presented for
identification. We believe that it is unacceptable
to identify a person who does not have
procedural status in criminal proceedings. In this
case, her right to defense is violated, and the
evidence obtained will be declared inadmissible
by the court.
Also during the investigation, there is often a
need to identify the corpse of an unidentified
person (Boiarov, Larkin, Dudorov, Pyrozhkova
& Legkykh, 2020, pp. 284-285). We believe that
the current legislation should specify that it is
advisable to involve close relatives and family
members for this action, and only in their absence
- to involve third parties (colleagues, neighbors,
acquaintances, etc.).
Recognition can be carried out based on
photographs and video materials. At the same
time, such methods of identification will exclude
the possibility of further presentation of the
person for identification (Law of Ukraine
No. 4651-VI, 2012).
The legal and organizational basis for video
identification should be determined separately.
This is because according to our analysis, the
results of such investigative (search) actions
were often considered inadmissible evidence.
According to our analysis of the investigative and
judicial practice of investigating serious and
especially serious crimes recorded in 2021, only
3% of the proceedings contained videos that met
the requirements for those that can be presented
for identification.
Identification videos must meet a number of
requirements. These include, but are not limited
to, the video must show at least four people who
must be of the same sex and not have sharp
differences in age, appearance and clothing with
the person to be identified. During the
preparation of the presentation for identification,
the investigator in the presence of a specialist
selects the frame of the video, where without
significant changes and distortions most fully
and accurately reflected the appearance of the
person presented for identification (Antoshchuk
& Hrynenko, 2021). You should also determine
whether the material offered for identification is
the original or a copy of how it was removed. In
judicial practice, there are cases when, according
to the defense counsel's complaints, the results of
video identification were recognized as
inadequate evidence in the case, as it is unknown
how and where the received videos were seized.
Given the urgency of this issue, it should be
emphasized that the problems that have made the
process of identification impossible for scientists
have been studied for a long time. The main ones
are procedural errors made by investigators.
They are conventionally called subjective, and
the other group is called - objective. The latter do
not depend on the activities of the subjects of
criminal procedure.
Subjective factors include: 1) failure to conduct a
preliminary interrogation with a detailed
reflection in the protocol of signs of appearance
by which she will be able to identify the person;
2) the presence of prior visual contact between
the person who recognizes and the person he will
recognize or the demonstration of a photograph
of the latter; 3) selection of extras who do not
correspond to the features of appearance as
defined in the criminal procedure legislation or
photographs that have different shapes or other
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features that significantly affect the perception of
the image; 4) failure to involve the required
number of extras or photographs or video
showing less than four people; 5) absence of
witnesses during the specified investigative
(search) action or continuous video recording of
the course of the specified action; 6) the absence
in the protocol of signatures of all participants in
the investigative (search) action (Husieva, 2021,
p. 116); 7) improper method of removing videos
that will be presented for identification, etc.
Objective problems include those that are not due
to the activities of the prosecution and due to
changes in the "object" of identification, if the
person who is recognized or other factors.
Among them are: 1) change in appearance due to
surgery (plastic surgery); 2) change of
appearance due to cosmetic procedures (bio
revitalization; mesotherapy; stack hyloclifting;
face modeling with fillers; botulinum toxin
injections, etc.); 3) cosmetic design (makeup);
4) change in appearance due to age changes;
5) change in appearance due to illness or injury
(for example, the appearance of spots due to
psoriasis, improperly fused nasal bones after a
fracture, etc.); 6) impossibility of recognition due
to the expiration of a long period of time
(forgetting the features of the object of
recognition); 7) evasion of the subject of
recognition from solving identification tasks due
to fear or desire to hide certain facts that are
known to him, etc. (Husieva, 2021, p. 117).
Another procedural way to identify a person by
appearance is a portrait examination. Its main
task is to identify the person (corpse) by
photograph (photograph, negative) and video.
This separate type of identification research
consists in separate and comparative analysis of
external features of a person, which are reflected
in photographic images, using special methods of
comparison, alignment, graphic modeling and
calculations of the mutual location of facial
features.
The basis for the forensic examination is the
relevant court decision or the decision of the pre-
trial investigation body, or a contract with an
expert or expert institution - if others commission
the examination. During the investigation of
criminal offenses, the need for a portrait
examination to identify an unidentified corpse
arises in the absence of persons who could
identify the deceased or living relatives of the
latter, from whom samples could be taken for
molecular genetic identification.
It is more common to appoint a portrait
examination to identify the identity of the
offender based on the received materials
recorded on video surveillance cameras,
photographs, etc. The analysis of the materials of
criminal proceedings shows that in order to
identify living persons, video recordings, which
record the illegal activities of these persons, are
most often sent to experts for research. The use
of video materials in law enforcement activities
is due to the relative completeness and
effectiveness of the recording of the event (time,
conditions, and nature of actions) and its
participants (Chashnytska, 2021).
Many factors affect the accuracy of the reflection
of a person's appearance on video. The specialist
must consider them when analyzing the
characteristics of the elements of appearance
during the implementation of expert research.
They include:
− factors directly related to the process of
photography and video (shooting conditions,
including type and nature of lighting,
position of the human head and body, optical
and technical characteristics of photographic
and video equipment, properties of
photographic and video media, features of
technological processes during making hard
copies);
− the scale of the image of the person's face
relative to the whole image;
− factors related to the condition of the
person's appearance (cosmetic design of
appearance; - makeup, facial expressions,
the possibility of surgery, artificial changes
in appearance without surgery)
(Chashnytska, 2021);
− factors related to the conditions of use and
storage of photographic and video
information media (long-term storage,
original or copy, low resolution video or
digital image).
Based on the generalization of expert practice,
we conclude that the main problematic issues that
made it impossible to conduct portrait
examinations on the basis of video and
photographs are as follows: 1) low quality of
samples (37%); 2) optical deformation of
comparative samples, which is due to the
peculiarities of the video camera (24%); 3) a
specific angle of photo, video image (usually
"top-down"); 4) lack of lighting during the
fixation of the environment (17%); 5) fixation of
the person during active movement (14%) 6) the
condition of the subject's clothing and his
emotional state (6%), etc. Similar problems, with
the exception of the last two, arise during the
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portrait examination, the object of which is the
study of photographs.
It should be noted that the low quality of the
samples provided is one of the most common
reasons for the inability to obtain a categorical
expert opinion. In order to solve this problem, ie
to improve the image quality, it is possible to
involve specialists in photographic research, who
study methods to improve the quality of video
images (video frames). Such research uses
special programs to improve video quality and
remove artifacts. They can be used to: eliminate
noise; increase the resolution of the video image
(increases the number of dots (pixels) in the
image vertically and horizontally); elimination of
the "shake" defect (digital image stabilization);
improving the sharpness of blurred areas of the
image; contrast enhancement; correction of
brightness and color saturation; video trimming;
image rotation; eliminate the pixelation artifact
of the frame while increasing the video
resolution.
Particular attention should be paid to obtaining
comparative materials for the portrait
examination of photographs, because they
depend on the ability of a forensic expert to
identify identification tasks. Such images are
made according to the rules of cognitive
(signaling) shooting: three busts are made - in the
right profile, full face (front) and with the head
turned to the right (half profile). To obtain the
most accurate image of the appearance of the
person being photographed, when shooting in
front and in profile should be in a vertical
position. When shooting in half profile, the
person's head should be slightly raised and turned
to the right so that the left auricle is clearly
visible. Shooting is done from the so-called
"normal point" (the position of the camera at
which the slightest perspective distortion of the
subject; when photographing the head, this point
will be the location of the camera at eye level of
the person being photographed). When shooting
in profile and full face, the person being
photographed must be depicted with a normal
facial expression, without a hat and other
clothing that hides any objects; her hair should be
combed (women's hair should not cover the
auricle). Shooting is carried out under lighting,
which allows you to most fully identify the relief
of the face and its features. Combined lighting is
usually used, which consists of one sufficiently
intense light source (window, spotlight) with a
reflective screen made of white fabric or paper.
The crucial point is the correct illumination of the
auricle: the picture should clearly reflect all its
features. Use a flat, relatively light, neutral
background when shooting. It is desirable that
among the comparative samples were images
close to the study time, image angle, and lighting.
For non-procedural methods of identification of
a person by appearance, they should include
identification by subjective portraits
(photographs). This activity is not regulated by
the current legislation of Ukraine, so the results
of their use will not contribute to obtaining
additional sources of evidence. As a rule, they are
used to solve search tasks: 1) establishing the
identity of an unknown criminal; 2) establishing
the location of a known criminal.
In order to create subjective portraits, either
artists or specialists from the departments of
portrait examinations are involved. At the same
time, a number of organizational difficulties
characterizes this activity. In particular, there are
currently problems with the appropriate staffing
of the relevant specialists of the portrait
examination departments of the forensic research
centers. There are also significant problems with
proper technical support (there are no new
technologies for assembling photo robots), as
well as proper information support, which is
manifested in the inability to verify the compiled
photo work on databases.
We believe that the solution of these problems
would be facilitated by the introduction into
practice of software and hardware for the
manufacture of three-dimensional model of the
face (three-dimensional photo-robots). This will
not only increase the recognition of the wanted
person, but also provide an opportunity to
identify the person who was observed by a
person (including persons with visual
impairments) through tactile contact
(Demchyshak, 2021; Antoshchuk, 2021, p. 76).
Conclusion
Identification of a person based on appearance is
ensured by the individuality, relative stability and
reflexivity of these features. Procedural methods
of identification based on appearance are the
presentation of a person for identification and
portrait examination. A non-procedural method
of identifying a person by appearance is the use
of subjective portraits, which are used to identify
third parties.
Presentation of a person for identification
belongs to those investigative (search) actions,
the results of which, according to the probative
value, can not be obtained in any other way. The
main factors that make it impossible to identify a
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person by appearance during the presentation of
a person for identification should be classified
into two groups: subjective and objective.
Objective factors that are not related to the
person being identified and to the person being
identified are difficult to eliminate, as they
sometimes make it impossible to carry out the
specified investigative (search) action.
Subjective factors can be addressed by enhancing
the professional competence of the prosecution,
as well as by reforming the provisions of current
criminal procedure law.
The legal provisions governing the procedure for
presenting for identification need to be clarified.
In particular, Art. 228 of the CPC of Ukraine
should be supplemented with the following
provisions:
1) close relatives, family members of the
deceased may be invited to present the
corpse for identification, in exceptional
cases (if it is impossible to establish them) -
third parties may be involved;
2) the suspect, witness, victim may be
presented for identification;
3) receipt of video recording materials
presented for identification must be carried
out in the manner prescribed by the Code.
Portrait examination is a procedural way of
identifying a person or corpse by appearance.
This forensic examination is unique in its
probative value, because it allows you to solve a
number of identification problems, which will
result in a procedural source of evidence.
Carrying out of portrait examinations is possible
only according to the recommendations, which
are approved in the form of a technique of
carrying out examination of this kind.
Factors that often make it impossible to solve
identification tasks during a portrait examination
are: low quality of comparative samples, which
is due to the resolution of the camera and the
conditions under which the video or photos were
taken (distance, angle, lighting, etc.). In this
regard, the main task of the prosecution is to
produce comparative materials in compliance
with the relevant requirements in the case of
photographs. Existing software and hardware
components used in portrait research need to be
improved.
Non-procedural method of identification of a
person based on appearance is the identification
of a person by a subjective portrait (photo robot).
At present, this activity is not regulated by the
current legislation of Ukraine, and therefore the
results obtained due to such identification are
indicative. Currently, there are problems with
improving the technical support used in expert
institutions to create subjective portraits,
including three-dimensional projections.
The need to identify a person by appearance
arises more and more often, which increases the
relevance of the research problem. In the context
of the research question, scientists should focus
their efforts on the formation of scientific and
practical recommendations for law enforcement
agencies, the development of new and
improvement of modern software to ensure the
effective implementation of this process.
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