Peculiarities of Interrogating Juvenile Victim in Pre-Trial Proceedings

Abstract

The aim of the research is to study, analyse and discover issues of peculiarities of interrogating a juvenile, who has suffered from a criminal offense against morality and sexual integrity, in the pre-trial proceedings. The paper deals with study of the status of a juvenile victim in criminal proceedings concerning morality and sexual integrity and the related regulatory framework, as well as the procedure for interrogation of a juvenile victim who has suffered from a sexual offence. During the research it was concluded that the Criminal Procedure Law requires the following additions: to regulate the status of an especially protected victim during a trial and to provide for peculiarities of interrogating such victim during court investigation; to stipulate the right of a person directing the proceedings to change a representative of the victim, who has known or suspected a sexual offence against a child but failed to prevented it, throughout the criminal proceedings; to determine mandatory simultaneous participation of juvenile especially protected victim’s representative and provider of legal aid in all procedural actions, determine mandatory participation of a psychologist during interrogation of a juvenile victim; to provide for a full interrogation report instead of an overview to be prepared concerning investigatory activity recorded in the sound and image record, and the report shall contain all the facts established in the investigatory activity and its process.