Theoretical and practical training in criminology is continually expanding with innovative methodologies and techniques. Among criminalist techniques, classical biological traces: fingerprints; blood; DNA, mitochondrial DNA and RNA; other biological fluids (saliva, seminal fluid, vaginal secretions, urine, etc.) are among the detections performed at crime scenes. Knowledge of environments (ecosystems and fauna) and the influence of these on cadaveric remains is fundamental in criminalistics, so much so that body factories have sprung up to study these aspects.
Another fundamental element of the criminalist expert is the biological recognition of the individual using, for example, phenotypic patterns, the retina, the voice and the human volabolome. Volabolomics is the science that studies volatile substances and makes it possible to identify the fingerprint at the crime scene. The search for volatile substances has been widely used in criminalistics since the early 1900s. At that time, Rudolphina Menzel was the first to develop dog training methods for the identification of persons involved in crimes using dogs' perceptive ability of volatile substances emitted from the body. These methods were taken up and used by Germany during the Second World War and later by the Soviet bloc, and again in the 1970s by dog carabinieri. Today, Odorotheques or Volabolomoteche exist in several countries, a kind of 'library' of volatile molecules collected at crime scenes. In modern times, the search for a missing person by means of a dog's sense of smell is now normal practice. This is possible by considering a range of variants (known or only conceivable) such as, for example: an individual who has disappeared voluntarily or not, an individual with cognitive difficulties due to trauma, pathology or substance abuse, a corpse or human remains, a search in rubble and on an avalanche. Volabolomics is also applicable in a remarkable range of phenomenologies such as, for example, the identification of volatile body metabolites under normal or stressful conditions, volatile substances emitted by poisons, toxic substances, drugs (e.g. Captagon or jihad drug, Shaboo or kamikaze drug, the African Bombé or zombie drug), as well as in the field of explosives, incendiary substances, various detergents and all those substances used to carry out criminal events or to cover up their traces, volatiles produced by electronic materials such as bugs, computer devices, microcells (e.g., increasingly common in prisons). This science employs advanced detection technologies such as the electronic nose that 'mimics' or replaces a dog's nose, which is very useful when searching for explosives or high-risk scenarios.
The criminalistics expert, within complex work teams, must necessarily have in his or her background knowledge of this new criminalistics tool that has become indispensable for analysing the qualitative and quantitative dimension of the crime scene. In the activity of judicial consultancy for defence investigations, knowledge of this discipline is certainly a very useful investigative competence that cannot be disregarded.