Crime Investigation: The Scientific Method of Alfredo Niceforo

Abstract

The research purpose is a scientific analysis of the role of crime investigation method developed by A. Niceforo in of forensic science formation about the methods of investigating criminal offenses and forensic methods  as a component of modern criminalistics. For achieving the goal, the methods of scientific knowledge are applied: observation, comparison, abstraction, analysis, synthesis, modeling, etc. The construction of A. Niceforo’s method involves general scientific methods and techniques (proposing hypotheses, graph method, analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, analogy), comprehensive approach, systematicity, phasing, knowledge of psychology. The professional and psychological qualities of a person (investigator), which are required for implementation of the analyzed method, are noted: intelligence, observation, the ability to apply logical techniques and operations in practice (induction, deduction, analysis, hypothesizing, etc.), intellectual development, and experience. A. Niceforo’s method of putting forward hypotheses successfully borrowed from the fundamental sciences is a prototype of the modern versioning method (method of putting forward and checking versions). A. Niceforo rejected techniques that could cause any kind of suffering to the subject: sleep deprivation, use of psychotropic drugs and/or moral abuse, interrogation under hypnosis. It is substantiated that the method of investigating crimes according to A. Niceforo became an important step for forensic science formation about the methods of investigating criminal offenses and the theoretical foundations of modern criminalistic methods.