Abstract
Objective: to determine the essential, forensically significant features that characterize individuals who are engaged in cattle-stealing, to formulate recommendations for their detection.Methods: dialectical approach to social phenomena cognition was used. The theoretical and methodological bases are general provisions of the epistemology of science, general and legal psychology. Specific sociological research methods were used in the form of studying the criminal cases and surveying the respondents.Results: the paper identifies and systematizes the essential features characterizing the persons involved in cattle-stealing. Among them: a relatively stable relapse, committing group crimes, anti-social lifestyle, pronounced male type of crimes. This, in turn, allows to propose the general and specific versions, to predict the location of the offender and the stolen cattle.Scientific novelty: the article proposed the use of prognostic information to identify the likely cattle-stealer. The importance of the complete information about the manner, the place, the subject and the object of the crime is highlighted in order to formulate the typical investigative situation. Practical significance: the results obtained during research allow to increase the efficiency of planning and use of tactics when carrying out investigative actions directed on establishment of persons, specializing in cattle-stealing.