This article is devoted to the study of offender, as the criminological characteristics of the element. The purpose of this article is to supplement forensic knowledge of the offender, their classification and identification of areas of use of the data about the person in the identification and investigation of the crimes of investigative and operational search actions. In modern conditions, when the fight against crime is one of the main problems, the problem of identity of the offender is the focus of many sciences. Personality of the offender as one of the elements of criminological characteristics of crimes investigated by many scholars (each in a particular context) of such scientific disciplines as criminal law, criminal procedure, criminology, criminology, psychology, psychiatry. The presence of generalized information about the subjects of crime and its use is essential for clarifying the mechanism of a crime or crimes of a particular group, to identify the persons involved in the crime, and to establish their roles and functions. As a result of studying the materials of the criminal proceedings, the actions of the perpetrators should, as a rule, part of not one but several crimes. In the chain of criminal behavior they form a corresponding set of (complex) in the structure of criminal enrichment technologies, which consist of the main and subordinate crimes. technologies such data include information about the typical signs of criminal behavior of subjects before, during and after the crime. It should always be taken into account in the prevention, detection and investigation of criminal proceedings, since it allows the investigator or operatives reveal prone to delinquent behavior of persons significantly narrow down the suspects in a crime, to find out the purpose and motive of committing a crime, build version and plan tactical operations, and after a suspected person will be known — to determine a course of conduct in relation to her at the investigative actions and court proceedings.