INVESTIGATION OF CRIMINAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ILLEGAL PUBLIC USE OF DRUGS

The relevance of the article is that the spread of drug addiction and drug crime in Ukraine over the past ten years has become one of the most acute social problems, failure to solve which leads to harm to human health, negative impact on the social sphere, and is a threat to national security. Of particular concern in the light of socio-economic crises is the systematic use of illicit drugs and the increase in drug-related crimes. At the same time, the number of criminal offenses for illegal public use of drugs is increasing, which in turn requires the creation of the most advanced methods of detection and investigation of criminal offenses and the development of appropriate practical recommendations for the use of forensic techniques and tactics specific to a particular crime. The purpose of the article is to provide a forensic characterization of illegal public drug use. The scientific article analyzes the scientific positions of forensic scientists and proceduralists on the understanding of the conceptual category «forensic characteristics of a criminal offense» and further identification of the main elements of the forensic characteristics of criminal offenses. It is stated that forensic characteristics are a relevant scientific abstraction based on the analysis of investigative, expert, operational-search, judicial practice used by this practice through the methodology of investigation of criminal offenses of the relevant type, the starting point for which it is characteristic. Within the limits of the scientific article the following elements of the criminological characteristic of illegal public use of drugs are allocated and investigated: a) a way of commission of a criminal offense; b) a description of the identity of the offender; c) the subject of criminal encroachment; d) place of commission; e) typical traces of the crime.