Department of Forensic Science

About the department

The Department of Forensic Science of the Faculty of Law of the Lobachevsky University was established in 2011 in order to create conditions for professional training of students in the field of forensic expertise.

The Department of Forensic Science implements educational programs of higher professional education in accordance with the new Federal state educational standard of the third generation in the specialty 40.05.03 “Forensic science” with the assignment of the qualification “Forensic expert” in three graduate specializations:

• Criminalistic expertises (dactyloscopic expertise, trasological expertise, fingerprint, forensic ballistic expertise, expertise of cold and throwing weapons, forensic portrait expertise, forensic handwriting forensic, technical and criminalistic expertise of documents);
• Speech expertises (forensic linguistic expertise, forensic phonoscopic expertise, forensic authorship expertise, linguistic conflictology);
• Economic expertises (forensic accounting expertise, financial and economic expertise, tax expertise).

The training of such personnel is very important as forensic experts become an essential element in ensuring the objectivity of the detection and investigation of crimes and, ultimately, in strengthening the guarantees of respect for the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and the state.

In order to form and develop professional skills, active and interactive forms of classes are also used in the educational process (for instance, computer simulations, business role-playing games, analysis of specific situations, workshops, psychological and other trainings) in combination with extracurricular work.

The training courses include meetings with representatives of law enforcement and judicial bodies, other public authorities and management, and participation of specialists in classroom and extracurricular activities.

The Department has three laboratories: Trasological research, Forensic photography and video recording, Forensic research of documents and handwriting. The heads of each laboratory have permits to conduct various types of expertise.

The Department of forensic science is the organizer of three following conferences: The International scientific and practical conference “Criminalistic, forensic and operational-search support for the fight against crime”, the all-Russian scientific and practical conference “Natural science research methods in the theory and practice of judicial economic and speech expertise” and the International scientific conference “International and national trends and prospects for the development of forensic expertise”.

The Department of forensic science trains postgraduate students in the specialty 12.00.12 “Criminalistics, forensic expertise, operational investigative activities” and training in the master’s program “Forensic expertise in law enforcement” (specialty 40.04.01 “Jurisprudence”).

Leader

The head of the department is Candidate of Law, Associate Professor Vasiliy Yumatov.

The sphere of scientific interests: Handwriting and handwriting expertise, Forensic ballistics expertise, Theory of forensic expertise, Technical and forensic expertise of documents.

Science

The Department conducts research work: teachers participate in international, all-Russian, regional scientific conferences and participate in international projects. Each member of the department works under certain scientific direction and has its own scientific interests.

Alexei Afanasiev, Candidate of Law and Associate Professor. The sphere of scientific interests: Forensic Registration; Features of judicial and expert activity in special conditions, force majeure, emergency situations, in the conditions of an emergency rule and wartime; Legal regulation of restricted access information.

Svetlana Kozmenkova, Professor of Economics, Professor and Yulia Zhiltsova, Candidate of Economics, Associate Professor work together on Financial and economic expertise.

Alexandr Lubin, Doctor of Law, Professor, The creator and head of the scientific school “Forensic tools to ensure the economic security of Russia”. In the field of his scientific interests there are: Criminal procedural problems of evidence; Problems of tactics of collecting and presenting evidence in criminal proceedings; Theory of the criminal process; Criminalistic problems of the mechanism of criminal activity and the methods of investigating crimes in the economic sphere.

Elena Govorkova, Research Assistant of The Department of Forensic Science is concentrated on Forensic Handwriting and Technical and criminalistic expertise of documents.

Ekaterina Moshtyleva, Research Assistant. Her scientific interests are: Forensic linguistics, Linguistic analysis in judicial practice and Forensic phonoscopy.

Vladimir Timchenko, Doctor of Law and Professor. His field of scientific interests: Forensic tax expertise, Forensic accounting expertise.

Anastasia Polyakova, Research Assistant. Her sphere of scientific interests: Using of modern computer technologies in the production of forensic examinations; The emergence of new objects of forensic examinations; Using three-dimensional modeling method in the production of forensic firearm examination.

Ekaterina Sevastyanova, Research Assistant focuses on Forensic authorship expertise and Trasology.

Oleg Solovyоv, Candidate of Law and Associate Professor. His scientific area: Economic and forensic analysis; Features of investigation of crimes in the sphere of construction and housing; Appraisal; Judicial production technology and commodity science; Accounting management.

Vadim Voronin, Candidate of Law and Associate Professor has the following scientific interests: Dactyloscopic expertise, Special technics of law enforcement bodies, Participation of specialist in legal proceedings,

Structure

The structure of the department includes 24 workers: 6 professors, 6 associate professors, as well as practical law enforcement officers, including 7 forensic experts.