Role of M. M. Bokarius in Development and Establishment of Criminalistics and Forensic Science in Ukraine

This article purpose is to determine the role of Professor M. M. Bokarius in the development of forensic science and criminalistics in Ukraine, as well as to popularize forensic knowledge and possibilities of their practical application. For achieving this goal, methods of cognition and formal logic, historical and biographical methods, method of comparative research, as well as comparative-legal, historical-comparative, system-structural, system-functional methods were used. During the study, we used an interdisciplinary approach. The role of Professor M. M. Bokarius in formation of medical forensic science, forensic medical research and forensic expert activity in Ukraine in the 20th century was determined. His medical, pedagogical, scientific and expert activity during the 1920s-1960s was analyzed. Attention is drawn to his performance of forensic medical activities in difficult political and economic conditions, in particular during the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933, World War II, and mass famine of 1946-1947. Teaching activities of M. M. Bokarius for law students (forensic medicine, crime investigation techniques (criminalistics), and other related disciplines) are considered. He was an organizer of the educational process and the head of higher educational institutions and forensic institutions (he held the positions of head of the department, vice-rector for academic work, and director of an expert institution). The professor’s scientific legacy is considered; his main works are analyzed; The subject of scientific research is systematized (forensic and forensic methods: forensic traumatology and thanatology, cadaver phenomena and the statute of limitations of death, corpse examination at the crime scene, mechanical asphyxiation, traces of firearms and gunshot wounds, material evidence). The role of M. M. Bokarius in application of forensic methods for the investigation of crimes, the establishment of the forensic direction in forensic medicine and the formation of medical forensics is argued. The peculiarities of emergence and existence in our time of the Bokarius Scientific and Pedagogical Forensic School are substantiated.