Working in an underground coal mine is undoubtedly associated with a lot of stress. This promotes the abuse of psychoactive substances – ethyl alcohol, but also medicines and narcotics. Drug tests are not routinely performed in mines. A 40-year-old hard coal miner suddenly fell while working and lost consciousness, followed by a seizure. Sudden cardiac arrest occurred, which could not be restored by cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The forensic autopsy did not determine the cause of death. However, it allowed to exclude traumatic death and revealed only minor pathological changes. Toxicological analyses of blood and urine performed using liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry showed, among others: the presence of α-PiHP (α-pyrrolidinoisohexanophenone) at a concentration of 0.062 μg/mL and 0.163 μg/mL, respectively, the metabolite of α-PiHP (OH-α-PiHP, 4-hydroxy-α-pyrrolidinoisohexanophenone) at a concentration of 0.080 μg/mL and 1.50 μg/mL, and tramadol at concentrations of 1.60 μg/mL and 15.9 μg/mL (toxic concentration in blood). In cases of death among hard coal miners, it is always justified to collect biological material for toxicological tests and to order analyses for the presence not only of ethyl alcohol, but also of medicines and narcotics. This may be crucial to determining the cause of death and for post-accident investigation in the workplace.

Wildlife crime is a significant threat to biodiversity and can have serious ecological, economic, and social impact. Skin, horns, claws, antlers, and virtually all parts of an animal’s body are utilized in illegal trade. Animal hair is invariably found as physical evidence in wildlife crimes pertaining to mammals. It is also found in wildlife crimes in the form of illegal artifacts, or as circumstantial evidence suggesting the involvement of crime against animals. DNA typing methods are widely applied for species identification but are sometimes unreliable when the sample is highly degraded or mixed with other items. Hair is commonly analysed by microscopic techniques; however, it lacks statistical confidence in identification when the sample size is small and the results are somewhat subjective in nature. Here, we investigate the role of attenuated total reflection Fourier transform-infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy in analysing the spectra obtained from the hair of two distant species of Indian blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) and Hanuman langur (Semnopithecus entellus) in combination with a suitable chemometric model, i.e., PCA (principal component analysis) and PLS-DA (partial least squares discriminant analysis). This is an alternate non-destructive method for the distinction of the multiple spectra. PCA plot showed the grouping to some extent; however, PLS-DA analysis resulted in the correct segregation of both species. Additionally, this model was validated by 6 unknown hair samples of both species, resulting in a 100% accuracy. The model’s sensitivity and specificity were also tested and calculated to be 1. Hence, the potential of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy is demonstrated by its speed, non-destructive examination, and minimal or no sample preparation. It can complement the present microscopic and DNA-based techniques.

The highest social values of any legal country are the protection of natural rights, which include life, health, dignity, freedom and inviolability of the person. Ukraine declared these rights as the basic ones in the Art. 3 and 29 of the Constitution. The number of criminal offenses is large enough and gradually increasing, but only a small number of them are really important for the life of the individual and the consequences of their actions remain until the end of the life of the victim. Such criminal offenses include articles that protect sexual freedom and immunity. Ukraine has been under martial law for 10 months, and during this period cases of sexual violent criminal offenses have taken place. The aim of the study is to analyze the statutes, declarations and conventions that should protect persons from the said criminal offenses. The study analyzed 1) the attitude of the ECHR to criminal offenses related to sexual freedom and immunity, and changes in legislation in connection with the ratification of international law; 2) conflicts and inconsistencies that exist in the law on criminal liability now and those that do not comply with international treaties that were ratified, for example, the new version of Art. 155 and 303 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; 3) the latest changes in the legislation of Ukraine concerning Art. 156 “Child abuse for sexual purposes”of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; 4) data from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on criminal offenses related to sexual freedom and immunity. As a result, it has been established that 40% of the analyzed difficulties do not end with the indictment in the court. There is a doubt about the determination of the same degree of social danger of rape (Art. 152 the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and sexual violence (Art. 154 the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The Art. 154 the Criminal Code of Ukraine concerning the difficulty of proving the criminal offense was analyzed, and a new version of this article was proposed. Diagrams with the data from the register of court decisions the correlation of indictments and court decisions on the recognition of persons guilty of the mentioned criminal offenses were created. The explanations of the Supreme Court concerning this category of cases were analyzed and presented. Finally, proposals were formulated to improve the current version of the criminal legislation of Ukraine.

Ink analysis is one of the most important and keydimension of forensic document examination (FDE). It is performed to compare, identify, characterize and discriminate different kinds of inks present on questioned document. It becomes key evidence in forensic document examination. In the present work, thirty-eight blue gel pens are discriminated using visible spectroscopy coupled with chemometric techniques. The recorded spectra were visually compared followed by chemometric techniques of principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Discriminating power for visual comparison, PCA and LDA are 58.18%, 100% and 100% respectively. Developed PCA model is validated and 100% accuracy, precision, sensitivity and specificity are achieved. Blue gel pen inks were 100% correctly differentiated on the basis of their brands using PCA followed by LDA. The utilized approach is fast and provides reproducible results. The results of present work demonstrate that potential utility of conventional and cost-effective visible spectroscopy can be improved by coupling it with these chemometric techniques. Major advantage of present research is the minimum damage caused to document. This study establishes a method which provides proof of concept discrimination of the gel pen samples. The methodology adopted in present work can be applied in the alteration cases in examination of suspected documents.

Burglary crimes inflict a significant toll on society, both financially and psychologically. Most of these cases are never solved, many times because no visible signs of entry or forensic evidence are found at the scene. In this report, we detail a police case involving a series of burglaries in Israel, all of which lacked any visible signs of forced entry. Thirteen burglaries were initially linked by the so-called forensic intelligence method and the analysis of additional forensic data obtained during the inspection of the scene and in the forensic laboratory. Linking seemingly unrelated crime scenes through forensic data analysis can increase the effectiveness of case investigations.

This study examines the relationship between early maladaptive schemas (EMS) and the characteristics of offences committed by sex crime convicts. The research uses data collected from 102 convicts. The Polish version of Young’s Schema Questionnaire (YSQ-S3-PL) was used to gauge the severity of EMS. The author’s self-made questionnaire used for making extracts from prison records, coupled with Beisert’s Violence Scale (2012), was employed to study the characteristics of the offences committed by the criminals under study. A correlation was found between the characteristics of the committed criminal acts (choice of victim, the CSO’s modus operandi, sexual violence involved) and the type and severity of each EMS. Relevant for CSOs in the context of their criminal acts are 4 domains out of 5 and 11 EMSs out of 18. The findings suggest that EMS contribute to criminal sexual behaviour. It may be important and useful to consider these structures when constructing models of preventive measures and planning therapeutic or proactive interventions. As a result, it would seem that convicted sexual offenders (CSO’s) require a customised approach including therapeutic models designed to address the specific maladaptive schema.

The article describes the current possibilities of forensic medicine in the diagnosis of death by drowning, as well as reflects the different views of the authors and the evolution of approaches to this issue. Despite the constant interest of scientists in the topic of drowning and extensive research on this issue, there are still many white spots. Researchers are trying to identify more specific changes characteristic of drowning and possible methods to detect them. The main evidence based method of diagnosing drowning at present is the detection of diatomic plankton in the tissues of isolated kidneys by light optical microscopy. However, microscopic examination and identification of diatomic plankton require a lot of time and accurate taxonomic examination. Also, a disadvantage of this method is that the methods of processing the material sent for research, as a result of the use of concentrated acids for the destruction of organs, greatly complicates and sometimes eliminates the possibility of detection of diatomic plankton. In some cases, the presence of diatoms during drowning is so small that it is impossible to detect them by microscopy. In such cases, the presence of phytoplankton DNA detected by PCR in tissues during drowning is almost the only method for diagnosing drowning. Nowadays there has been a lack of research in the field of forensic medicine related to the use of evidence-based medicine, especially in the field of drowning.

To establish the motives for the act is one of the main goals of the psychological evaluation required by judicial process in cases of suicide. In many cases, this makes it possible to prove or falsify the hypothesis that a person’s death is the result of the actions of one or more other people who –in one way or another –have contributed to that person’s decision to take their own life. Sometimes, people who die by suicide leave farewell notes indicating the person or people directly responsible for their deaths. Although notes of this kind offer an important source of information about the emotional states of their authors and their relationships with their social environments, they remain subjective. Indeed, it is often the case that thorough reviews of all of the material in the cases concerned do not support the thesis that a third party directly influenced the deceased’s decision to end their own life. Moreover, in some instances, people who die by suicide have been found to have misled the people in their immediate environment. Nevertheless, where verified suicide notes exist, they remain a valuable source of information for psychologists. The article analyses ninety-three cases in which psychological reports were compiled to determine the motives for fatal suicide attempts. Suicide notes were found in thirty of these cases. The form and content of these notes are examined, and the options for their use in forensic reports are considered.

Detailed assessment of the biotransformation of compounds and the activity of their metabolites is an extremely important element in the safety evaluation of a substance, both in preclinical and clinical studies. It should be noted that the metabolite may differ from the parent compound in terms of physicochemical properties and consequently pharmacological and toxicological properties. The purpose of the biotransformation of xenobiotics is to increase their hydrophilicity, which allows excretion in the urine. the metabolites of biotransformation phase I show undesirable pharmacological or toxic effects much more often. according to U.S. Food and Drug administration (FDA) guidance, if a metabolite in the human body accounts for more than 10% of the total amount of metabolites, its safety should be thoroughly assessed. Metabolites can interact more strongly or weakly, or to the same degree, with the same or a different molecular target as the parent compound. they can also display non-specific effects by, for example, damaging macromolecules (e.g. proteins, nucleic acids) in the way that free radicals do. In the case of new psychoactive substances (NPSs), the pharmacological properties, including metabolism, are largely unknown until they are traded illegally and their users begin to appear in departments of toxicology or forensic medicine. It is in this way that the activity profile and probable metabolic pathways of NPSs are determined. to determine the metabolites of NPSs is also an important toxicological skill in the forensic testing of biological samples (blood/urine/tissue) collected from victims, in which metabolites, not parent compounds, are usually found. Using examples from the authors’ research and the available literature, the article aims to present alternative methods of metabolism testing for NPSs. In vitro methods (application of microsomes, S9 fraction, hepatocytes, cytosol) are discussed and comparisons are made between the results of in vivo tests on animals and analyses of autopsy material. The experiments and the literature review demonstrate that by using in vitro methods the metabolism of NPSs can be predicted with high probability. By improving existing methods of metabolism research and creating new and alternative ones it will be possible to better understand metabolic pathways and better identify the NPS metabolites formed in the human body. This will contribute not only to the development of better methods of treating NPS poisoning, but will also be of use when compiling forensic and medical reports for the judiciary.