The main issue of the article concerns the actual role of the public prosecutor in the interrogation of juvenile witnesses. The author’s analysis shows that the participation of the prosecutor in interrogations satisfies the adversarial principle, and, at the same time, guarantees correctness and completeness of the results of the interrogations, which directly affects the quality and efficacy of criminal proceedings.
Evidence of an underage witness may play a vital role in criminal proceedings in ascertaining the circumstances of an incident. The achievement of this goal is undoubtedly determined by the way a child is questioned — a way that takes into account the procedural and tactical rules of questioning juveniles, bearing in mind the psychological aspects of the formation of underage witness’ testimony. What is also important is a critical approach to its credibility. All this requires active participation of an expert psychologist who can assess the witness’ personality, observation and reconstruction skills, and thus can provide the relevant institution with additional material which can be used to evaluate the credibility of the evidence of an underage witness.
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