Forensic olfaction employment for solving crimes

Abstract

The research on the use of forensic olfaction is relevant due to the need to highlight its content and rules of practical application in the analysis of odour traces of a criminal, which ensures improvement of crime solving and investigation. The study aims to analyse the olfaction information properties which individually identify a person about the odour traces left at the crime scene; to study the current possibilities of the methodology for conducting olfaction examinations; and to formulate proposals for improving the process of expert analysis of olfaction information in criminal proceedings. The study uses comparative legal, terminological, systemic, and structural, formal and logical methods, as well as the method of expert experiment. The author confirms the data on the individuality of each personʼs smell, in particular, based on cases from investigative practice, the author shows the possibility of establishing the individuality of odour traces and their belonging to a particular person, even in the case of a crime committed by two monozygotic twins. The author substantiates the possibility of collecting odour traces from various objects with which several persons had contact, and of isolating those odour particles, allowing detector dogs to identify their specific carrier. The study defines the general conditions and procedure for conducting an olfaction analysis of odour traces of a person being tested in connection with a criminal offence investigation. It is generalised that the work of detector dogs for the most effective odour analysis should be carried out in a special room without extraneous odours at a temperature of +20°C and relative humidity of 60-80%. The study systematises the general prohibitions that should be observed during an olfaction examination, which relate to the non-use of control and auxiliary odour samples of persons familiar to detector dogs; the work of an olfaction expert and a dog handler in a special room is separated to prevent the specialist from obtaining information about the specific location of the storage jar with the odour information that is being installed. The practical significance of the study is determined by the expansion of the ability of law enforcement agencies to identify persons involved in a crime by their odour traces left at the scene and to conduct forensic examinations using the method of forensic olfaction

Keywords

• scent trail
• collection of human scent trails
• forensic olfaction
• dog handler
• olfaction expert
• specialised knowledge