We are talking about an unusual location located at the Faculty of Law of SFU

Not all universities have the opportunity for law students to acquire practical skills in conducting various investigative actions at any time of the year and under any weather conditions. But students of the Faculty of Law of the Southern Federal University, future criminologists, have a whole platform where they learn to conduct crime scene inspections, searches and other investigative actions, detect, seize, record and examine evidence and much more!

The forensic training ground was opened at the Faculty of Law in 2019 on the initiative of the head of the department of criminal procedure and criminology, Konstantin Stepanov . The testing ground includes three locations: street, living room and office. All rooms are equipped with the necessary furniture, mannequins and decorations.

Locations allow you to simulate various situations that may arise in the professional activities of law enforcement officers.

“For each lesson, a certain plot of the completed act is developed. Students independently remove traces of a crime, put forward versions, and prepare a mock-up of a criminal case. It is important that these three locations can be used not only as part of the study of criminal procedure and criminology, but also when conducting practical classes in other areas of law,” says Yuriy Demidchenko, associate professor of the department of criminal procedure and criminology .

“Street” is the largest location by area. A traffic accident involving a car is simulated here. Inspection of the scene of an accident is one of the most difficult types of investigative examinations, therefore, due attention is paid to the peculiarities of the tactics of its implementation in the training process of future investigators.

Students inspect the vehicle, remove handprints, shoe prints left on soft ground, and make plaster casts to be included in the case as evidence .

“Especially for this location, the university purchased a Zaporozhets car, which has a rear engine – this confuses many students. To complicate the task, we leave traces of the crime in the car interior – bullets, shell casings, mock-ups of bladed weapons. The guys confiscate them and subsequently describe them according to the rules of forensic science, adding them to the protocols of investigative actions,” says Yuriy Demidchenko .

The next room of the landfill is conventionally called “Living Room”. Here, everyday crimes, illegal acts related to theft of property, and other situations are modeled. The room contains the necessary furniture, personal belongings of the participants in the incident and various items that allow you to simulate a crime with the use of firearms.

The third room is a typical office worker’s office. The location allows for practical training on inspection of the crime scene, investigative experiment, checking evidence on the spot, search, seizure, interrogation, etc.

“We also have an investigator’s station in the Office location. Here the guys learn to conduct interrogations of victims, witnesses, suspects, using various tactics,” noted Yuriy Demidchenko .

All interiors are decorated very neatly and realistically. For example, in the living room you can see a coffee table with a floor lamp, a picture, a closet with things and other items. There are also dummies with which you can find out how the offense was committed.

Students have forensic suitcases at their disposal – they contain all the equipment necessary for traces (footprints of shoes, burglary tools, vehicles), ballistic (traces of the use of firearms) and dactyloscopic (fingerprints) examinations, and a number of other tools.

According to Yuriy Demidchenko , students are happy to participate in classes at the forensic training ground. After all, here they have the opportunity not only to become more familiar with prosecutorial and investigative activities, but also to learn how to work in a team: distribute responsibilities among members of the investigative team and take on the responsibility of leading it.

In the year of its opening, the SFedU forensic testing ground for the first time became the site of the regional competition “The investigation is being conducted…” Future lawyers from various universities in the South of Russia demonstrated their abilities in three locations of the testing ground. The palm went to the students of the Southern Federal University.

Text author: Nikita Zhukov

SFU | SFEDU SFEDUGO: a place where future criminologists learn to solve crimesFebruary 2, 20221:19 SFEDUGO: a place where future criminologists learn to solve crimes SFU | SFEDU00:00