Narcotics trafficking is a fundamental part of organized crime, posing significant and evolving challenges for forensic investigations. Addressing these challenges requires rapid, precise, and scientifically validated analytical methods for reliable identification of illicit substances. Over the past five years, forensic drug testing has advanced considerably, improving detection of traditional drugs—such as tetrahydrocannabinol, cocaine, heroin, amphetamine-type stimulants, and lysergic acid diethylamide—as well as emerging new psychoactive substances (NPS), including synthetic cannabinoids (e.g., 5F-MDMB-PICA), cathinones (e.g., α-PVP), potent opioids (e.g., carfentanil), designer psychedelics (e.g., 25I-NBOMe), benzodiazepines (e.g., flualprazolam), and dissociatives (e.g., 3-HO-PCP). Current technologies include colorimetric assays, ambient ionization mass spectrometry, and chromatographic methods coupled with various detectors, all enhancing accuracy and precision. Vibrational spectroscopy techniques, like Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, have become essential for non-destructive identification. Additionally, new sensors with disposable electrodes and miniaturized transducers allow ultrasensitive on-site detection of drugs and metabolites. Advanced chemometric algorithms extract maximum information from complex data, enabling faster and more reliable identifications. An important emerging trend is the adoption of green analytical methods—including direct analysis, solvent-free extraction, miniaturized instruments, and eco-friendly chromatographic processes—that reduce environmental impact without sacrificing performance. This review provides a comprehensive overview of innovations over the last five years in forensic drug analysis based on the ScienceDirect database and highlights technological trends shaping the future of forensic toxicology.

The study aims to determine the trust and presence of police officers in schools in Serbia, as well as the perception of the principals and secretaries, teachers and staff, parents and students on how successful the certain police units dedicated to schools were in fulfilling their tasks. The ex–post analysis was conducted through PEST/SWAT analysis, mapping of the key actors and using batteries of online questionnaires. Besides interviews with the MOI representatives, there were conducted: Survey with personal interviewing, Computer–aided surveying and Desk analysis and content analysis. The survey was conducted in the period from September 2021 to June 2022. The research methods were implemented in 1140 schools in Serbia and 8,617 people were included in surveys: police officers (308); principals and secretaries (1085); the team for protection against discrimination (982); teachers and staff (2988); parents (938) and students (2316). The relationships between the covariates and perception were investigated using the t–test, one–way ANOVA, multivariate linear regression, and binary regression. The results showed that a project of school police officers was not fully recognized as one of the strategically important instruments for safe schools, trust is low but presence is high. Besides that, the results suggest that the entire public believe that a police is needed in schools and that it has a very positive effect on school safety. Regarding school safety policy, it is necessary to undertake three types of measures for sustainable development of trust and presence of police in school: regulatory, informa-tive-educational and institutional-organizational.

The aim of this research was to determine the current state of multisectoral cooperation between the competent state bodies and institutions provided by the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence, recognized as a basis for preventing domestic violence and providing protection and support to victims. The empirical findings were obtained by surveying 43 employees in the social work centres in the Srem administrative district, who act in cases of domestic violence. After data collection, they had to be organized, so the statistical method of descriptive statistics was applied and for that purpose, the statistical software package SPSS was used (ver. 20). The results of the research showed the efficiency of mutual cooperation between the competent authorities, but also the necessity of continuing the work on the reform of the above-mentioned legal text.

Determining the cause of car fires is a combined expert examination conducted as the examination of a burnt car by the experts of the National Forensic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia. The expert examination primarily determines whether the fire occurred as a result of spontaneous combustion or it was either a negligent or an intentionally caused fire - arson. The procedure involves an investigation of the scene of the incident and an expert examination of material retrieved from the scene of the fire or from persons who are suspected to have been present at the scene of the fire. That place contains a lot of personal and material information, possible evidence in the proceedings. The aim of this paper is to point out, based on practical examples, the specific traces showing the use of combustion accelerators, which in criminal investigations unequivocally indicates that the car was set on fire intentionally. Concentric flow trails, droplet flow and obstacle bypass, funnel flow trail, accelerant concentration trail, or uneven burning as a trail, are just some of the variants of combustion accelerator trails. The analysis of such traces on the practical examples has an exceptional didactic value. Accredited laboratories today have validated methods and instruments for detecting the presence of minimal amounts of combustion accelerants in a sample.

This paper aims to analyse the Montenegrin police officers? perception of gender equality. The findings are based on comprehensive empirical research of the perception of both male and female police officers in Montenegro, carried out in May 2020 in the form of an online questionnaire survey, and the collected data was subsequently analysed using statistical methods. The research results have indicated the key challenges faced by women in the Montenegrin police force: the perception that women should primarily perform administrative rather than managerial jobs, insufficient opportunities for career advancement, poor attitudes of executives towards women, and incidents of sexual harassment. The paper also attempts to shed light on a broader social context and the status of women in the police force by demonstrating that the inequality of women in the Montenegrin police force can be attributed at least in part to a deeprooted perception of the traditional patriarchal role of women in the family and in society.

Lipstick traces are frequent in forensic investigations, but substrate interference and chemical similarities often challenge their interpretation. This study evaluates a non-destructive analytical workflow combining Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and portable Raman spectroscopy, integrated with principal component analysis (PCA) and the AGREE green metrics tool, to discriminate lipstick traces across ten forensically relevant substrates. ATR-FTIR exhibited a noticeable substrate effect; face masks showed strong spectral distortions, still allowing lipstick recognition, while other substrates masked characteristic features. Portable Raman spectroscopy improved discrimination of lipstick formulation by targeting pigment- and filler-related signals and showed reduced substrate dependence—particularly on non-porous surfaces like a plastic cup and a face mask, where surface residues retained clear spectral signatures. PCA confirmed that ATR-FTIR separation was driven by both formulation and substrate effects, whereas Raman discrimination was primarily dictated by intrinsic chemical composition. The AGREE assessment yielded high scores of 0.85 for ATR-FTIR and 0.92 for portable Raman spectroscopy, indicating excellent adherence to green analytical chemistry principles. The synergy of ATR-FTIR, portable Raman, chemometrics, and green metrics provides a rapid, non-destructive, and sustainable framework for lipstick trace analysis, enhancing discriminatory performance, forensic applicability, and environmental sustainability.