Publication details
Psychologicko-právne aspekty posudzovania vierohodnosti svedeckej výpovede spolupracujúcich obvinených
| Title in English | Psychological-legal aspects of assessing the credibility of witness statements of cooperating accused persons |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Kriminalistika |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | Web nakladatele |
| Keywords | criminology; forensic psychology; credibility; credibility; witness statement; witness; cooperating accused; cooperating person; penitent; |
| Description | Cooperating defendants are individuals who agree to cooperate with law enforcement and provide information or testimony about other offenders in exchange for a reduced sentence or other benefits. This form of cooperation may include testifying in court, providing important information to investigators or assisting in the detection of criminal groups or corruption offences. In our article, we seek to provide a perspective on the issue of cooperating defendants at the intersection of forensic psychology, criminal law, and criminalistics. Our article discusses some aspects of forensic psychological credibility assessment and the motivation of cooperating defendants, as well as forensic psychological identification of their speculative and manipulative behavior, as well as capturing signs of their various fabrications and purposeful actions. There is no doubt that co-operating defendants represent an important aspect in criminal law, which on the one hand can help to detect and punish crimes, but on the other hand also raises many ethical and legal questions that call into question their basic credibility. It is therefore important to carefully consider their cooperation in the context of the protection of justice, while also ensuring that their rights and safety are not neglected either. On the other hand, it will be always necessary to view the cooperating accused with a certain amount of distrust, because they may be accused of serious criminal activity, and their actions may be motivated by the pursuit of self-preservation by obtaining various advantages, even at such a price that they will purposefully criminalize others with the aim of bringing them to prosecution, thus harming their basic human rights and freedoms. |