Abstract: The authors consider disputable questions about the subject of the science of criminalistics. The paper contains a brief analysis of the scholars’ positions on the notion of the “subject” of this science, and of the masters and bachelors of criminalistics education in the contemporary Russian Federation. The processes taking place in criminal and criminal procedural legislation need for a comprehension; they are important for criminalistics as far as they affect its subject. The research methodology is based on the analysis of the existing views of the concept of the “subject” of criminalistics in the historical development. The novelty of the study lies in the discussion about the scientific role of or a common sense theory in criminalistics. Criminalistics as a science is aimed at elaboration and systematization of objective knowledge about the laws of emergence, detection, research, evaluation and use of the factual data (traces) about the mechanism of a crime and its participants.