Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Esta publicación cientíca en formato digital es continuidad de la revista impresa
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Vol.39 N° 70
2021
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ISSN 0798- 1406 ~ De pó si to le gal pp 198502ZU132
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Vol. 39, Nº 70 (2021), 485-503
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Features of Interrogation of Minor
Victims in the Pre-Trial Investigation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3970.29
Olga Y. Guseva *
Myroslav V. Popovych **
Lyubov M. Hryndey ***
Oksana V. Melnyk ****
Mykhailo V. Huzela *****
Abstract
Comprehensive protection of minors is one of the priority
areas of criminal law policy. The pre-trial investigation, and their
interrogation as its part, occupies a special place in the process
of protection of minors and restoration of their violated rights.
The interrogation of minors is a special procedure with clearly
dened requirements. The aim of the study was to identify gaps
in the regulation of interrogation of minors and suggest ways to
address them. The methods used: system approach; descriptive statistics;
comparison and juxtaposition; descriptive analysis; pragmatic approach;
prognostication. The tactics of interrogation of a minor victim of a crime
are legally dened in the national criminal procedural legislation of the vast
majority of countries. The principles, rules, main measures, and purpose
of interrogation of this category of victims in the pre-trial investigation are
enshrined in the provisions of international regulations. These rules are
based on the principle of child-friendly justice. But the practical conduct of
the interrogation has several gaps, so it is necessary to clarify the rules of
international and national regulations on certain provisions.
Keywords: Interrogation of minors; interrogation tactics; minor victim;
pre-trial investigation; international legislation on minors.
* Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Economics, State University of
Telecommunications, 03110, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0075-9044. Email:
gusevaoy@ukr.net
** Assistant at the Department of Criminal Law, Faculty of Law, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University,
58012, Chernivtsi, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4807-6621. Email: m.y_popovych@chnu.
edu.ua
*** PhD in Medicine, Associate Professor at the Department of Criminal Law, Faculty of Law, Yuriy Fedkovych
Chernivtsi National University, 58012, Chernivtsi, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3503-2443.
Email: l_grindey@chnu.edu.ua
**** PhD in Law, Associate Professor at the Criminal Process Department, National Academy of Internal Aairs,03035,
Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1805-830X. Email: Melnik_oksana@ukr.net
***** PhD in Law, Associate Professor at the Department of Criminal Law and Procedure, Institute of Jurisprudence,
Psychology and Innovative Education, Lviv Polytechnic National University, 79013, Lviv, Ukraine. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2254-6990. Email: muhuzela@gmail.com
486
Olga Y. Guseva, Myroslav V. Popovych, Lyubov M. Hryndey, Oksana V. Melnyk y Mykhailo
V. Huzela
Features of Interrogation of Minor Victims in the Pre-Trial Investigation
Características del Interrogatorio de Víctimas Menores
en la Investigación Previa al Juicio
Resumen
La protección integral de los menores es una de las áreas prioritarias de
la política penal. La investigación previa al juicio, y su interrogatorio como
parte, ocupa un lugar especial en el proceso de protección de los menores
y restitución de sus derechos vulnerados. El interrogatorio de menores es
un procedimiento especial con requisitos claramente denidos. El objetivo
del estudio fue identicar lagunas en la regulación del interrogatorio de
menores y sugerir formas de abordarlas. Los métodos utilizados fueron:
enfoque de sistema; estadísticas descriptivas; comparación y yuxtaposición;
análisis descriptivo; enfoque pragmático; pronóstico. Las tácticas de
interrogatorio de un menor víctima de un delito están legalmente denidas
en la legislación procesal penal nacional de la gran mayoría de países. Los
principios, normas, principales medidas y nalidad del interrogatorio de
esta categoría de víctimas en la instrucción preliminar están consagrados
en las disposiciones de la normativa internacional. Estas reglas se basan en
el principio de justicia adaptada a los niños. Pero la conducta práctica del
interrogatorio tiene una serie de lagunas, por lo que es necesario aclarar
las reglas de las regulaciones internacionales y nacionales sobre ciertas
disposiciones.
Palabras clave: Interrogatorio de menores; tácticas de interrogatorio;
víctima menor; averiguación previa al juicio; legislación
internacional sobre menores.
Introduction
Minors are a special category of the population, which has its own
characteristics in physiological, psychological, and social spheres. That
is why minors (children) are considered to be the most vulnerable social
group (United Nations Oce on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), 2015). Their
vulnerability is due to the excessive susceptibility of minors to suggestion,
combined with their inherent naivety and immature thought processes
(Krzewinski, 2002), which ultimately manifests itself in their behaviour
and in their perception of the environment.
Given that minors are immature in psychological, mental, physiological,
and social spheres, as well as their immaturity and inability to fully
adequately assess the situation (Thompson, 2021), one of the main tasks
of the state is to protect and ensure the rights of minors for their normal
physical, psychological, mental and social development. Comprehensive
protection of minors is one of the priority areas of criminal law policy of
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Vol. 39 Nº 70 (2021): 485-503
each individual state and the world community (Lopez, 2021). For this
purpose, the state uses all possible means to protect minors from criminal
encroachment. But unfortunately, such protection is not always eective
and the number of crimes against minors is not decreasing. After all, the
situation in the world is such that the surge in crime in general entails an
increased delinquency against minors.
To restore the rights of minors violated by crime, the state uses certain
mechanisms, one of which is to prosecute and punish the perpetrators. This
is possible only through a lawful, fair and impartial pre-trial investigation
and trial of a criminal proceeding involving a minor.
A pre-trial investigation, which involves interrogation of some
participants in criminal proceedings, including victims, occupies a special
place in restoring the violated rights of a minor. The information obtained
during the pre-trial investigation during the interrogation of victims is
extremely important, as it is often the victims who can most accurately
describe the commission of a crime, indicate the circumstances that
accompanied its commission, and identify suspects, even taking into
account their special condition (McGarry and Walklate, 2015). Although
there is a clear mechanism for questioning victims and witnesses, the
same interrogation methods cannot be applied to minors as for adults, as
minors need to be treated dierently, given their age and developmental
dierences (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2013). To regulate
this process, the state must introduce certain guarantees to protect the
rights and interests of minors (Krzewinski, 2002).
The interrogation of minors is a special procedure with clearly dened
requirements, which are enshrined at the level of both international and
national law (Liefaard and Van den Brink, 2014). The rules and mechanism
of interrogation of minors, including victims, in criminal proceedings are
enshrined in a number of international regulations, the provisions of which
are based on the relevant provisions of national law of the member states of
these international regulations.
But interrogation of minors quite often involves a violation of their
rights, the use of unacceptable means and procedures of interrogation,
in particular, coercive tactics of interrogation by the police (Juvenile Law
Center, 2020); the Miranda warning is often violated (Caccarozzo, 2014);
the injury of children during interrogation in special rooms and the lack of
voluntary consent of the child to interrogation are hidden (Grane, 2017). It
is the authorities that are obliged to ensure the rights of minors that most
often grossly violate the rights of children during interrogation, which has
a negative impact on both the minor’s health and the results of the pre-trial
investigation.
488
Olga Y. Guseva, Myroslav V. Popovych, Lyubov M. Hryndey, Oksana V. Melnyk y Mykhailo
V. Huzela
Features of Interrogation of Minor Victims in the Pre-Trial Investigation
This draws the scholars’ attention to the problem of tactics and the
mechanism of interrogation of minor victims in criminal proceedings, in
particular at the stages of pre-trial investigation (Cleary, 2017); during the
cooperation of a psychologist, lawyer, investigator and judge in criminal
proceedings (Plavinskaya, 2016). The importance of training police ocers
in new tactical methods of interrogating minors in pre-trial investigations
is also noted (Cleary and Warner, 2016). Some studies deal with the
interrogation of minor victims of specic types of crimes, in particular,
sexual violence (Vaske, 2015); violent crimes in general (Korkman et al.,
2018) sex tracking (Lavoie et al., 2019).
But not all aspects of the interrogation of minor victims in the pre-trial
investigation have been resolved in scientic achievements. The issues of
interrogation of minor victims of dierent ages, psychological development
and degree of socialisation; structures of questions asked to minors during
interrogation; the use of special means during the interrogation of minor
victims in a pre-trial investigation (those may be special schemes, drawings,
graphics, dolls) (Tozik, 2019) remain unresolved and insuciently covered.
The main thing in the context of globalisation is the development of a
universal unied legislative approach to the process of interrogation of
minor victims during the pre-trial investigation from the standpoint of
child-friendly justice.
The above determines the aim of this study, which will be to identify
gaps in the regulation of the interrogation of minors and suggest ways
to address them. The aim involves such objectives as determining the
features of the interrogation of a minor victim, the principles and rules of
its implementation, as well as the analysis of the legally dened mechanism
of their interrogation in the pre-trial investigation.
1. Methodology and Methods
This study was conducted in a clear sequence, following the stages of
studying the issue, based on the logic of the presentation of the material,
in order to achieve the goals, set in the article and full certain objectives.
These stages were: formulation of topics and dening the boundaries
of the study; search and selection of literature; selection and study of
statistical data; analysis of the material presented in selected literature and
evaluation of the results of these studies; identication of unresolved issues
during the interrogation of minor victims in the pre-trial investigation;
determining the aim of the article; drawing conclusions and making
practical recommendations for solving the problems chosen for research;
outlining prospects for further research in this area.
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This study used statistics on the number of crimes committed against
minors by type; analysis of criminal procedural norms of criminal procedural
legislation of dierent countries and international legislation governing the
interrogation of a minor victim in a pre-trial investigation. The provisions
of international regulations dening certain aspects of the procedure for
interrogation of minor victims in criminal proceedings were studied in
detail to identify gaps and make proposals for their elimination both in
international regulations and in the provisions of national legislation of
individual countries to ensure child-friendly justice.
The legal framework of the study consisted of the provisions of the United
Nations Guidelines on Justice in Matters Involving Child Victims and
Witnesses of Crime (United Nations, 2005); Guidelines of the Committee
of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Child-Friendly Justice (Council
of Europe, 2011); UN Approach to Justice for Children (United Nations,
2008); Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children
against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Council of Europe, 2007);
Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1990); Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children,
Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (United Nations, 2000). The
provisions of the criminal procedure codes of 15 countries were analysed to
analyse the provisions of the national criminal procedure legislation, which
determine the procedure for interrogation of minor victims in the pre-trial
investigation.
Achieving this aim involved the following methods: systemic approach
was used to analyse the mechanism of interrogation of minor victims in
pre-trial investigation as a system of interconnected and interdependent
procedural mechanisms and develop proposals to improve legislation on
this stage of criminal proceedings; descriptive statistics, which was used for
processing, systematisation and visual demonstration in the form of tables
of basic statistical indicators on crimes against minors, their qualitative
composition and dynamics; comparison and juxtaposition was used to
establish the characteristics of minors that aect the tactics of interrogation
of such victims in the pre-trial investigation; descriptive analysis was used
to systematise, classify and summarise information on possible ways to
interrogate minor victims in the pre-trial investigation and shortcomings
in the activities of law enforcement agencies during its conduct; pragmatic
approach to data collection and analysis, which was used to develop tactics
during the interrogation of minor victims in the pre-trial investigation; the
forecasting method was used to develop proposals and recommendations
for improving the legal regulation of the interrogation of minor victims
during the pre-trial investigation.
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Olga Y. Guseva, Myroslav V. Popovych, Lyubov M. Hryndey, Oksana V. Melnyk y Mykhailo
V. Huzela
Features of Interrogation of Minor Victims in the Pre-Trial Investigation
2. Results
The commission of crimes against minors is unfortunately quite common
in the world. According to the World Health Organization (2020a), almost
three out of four children in the world (30 million children!) between 2 and
4 are regularly subjected to corporal punishment or psychological abuse by
adults; one in ve women and one in thirteen men under the age of 17 have
been sexually abused; 120 million girls and women under the age of 20 were
forced to have sex. Crimes involving minors are not homogeneous. They
dier in social danger, the main object of encroachment, nature, etc. The
most dangerous for minors are violent crimes, including domestic violence.
Crimes against sexual freedom and inviolability need to be mentioned
separately, as these crimes often lead to future deviations in moral and
psychophysiological development. As for the interrogation of minor victims
of sexual crimes, it is noted that interrogation is signicantly complicated
by the fact that children are often unaware that a crime has been committed
against them; are dependent on the suspects, and therefore do not talk
about what was done; there is shame and fear of confessing to the crime
committed against them. Minor victims of these violent crimes are the most
dicult to interrogate because they have to talk about too personal intimate
things and often about the loss of trust in loved ones.
Table 1. Types of crimes against minors (by individual
countries) in 2020 (% of the total number of minors living in
the country)
Country
Types of crimes against minors
Sexual
violence
Psychological
violence
(bullying)
Physical
violence (ill-
treatment)
Involvement
in violent
crime
Domestic
violence
(witnesses)
male fem male fem male fem male fem male fem
Albania 23 17 49 45
Armenia 11 7 61 67
Austria 39 33
Bolivia 32 28 45 21
Cambodia 6 4 23 22 15 12 18 15
Canada 33 38
Denmark 20 20
El Salvador 3 14 21 24 55 50 34 17 12 23
Estonia 39 37
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
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Finland 31 24
France 30 28
Georgia 70 63
Germany 23 24
Latvia 49 50
Lithuania 54 54
Montenegro 64 63
Northern
Macedonia
10 10 71 67 41 18
Norway 23 20
Republic of
Poland
32 29
Republic of
Moldova
34 35 77 74
Serbia 44 42
Sweden 11 14
Ukraine 39 37 58 55
USA 28 27 34 23
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) (2020b).
These data indicate that psychological violence against minors (bullying)
is widespread in countries with a high standard of living. However, it should
be noted that these data do not show the situation with crimes against
minors, as only partial data were taken, which were open to the public.
We must also keep in mind the high level of latency of delinquency against
minors, especially criminal oenses such as domestic violence and sexual
oenses.
It should be borne in mind that these and other crimes committed
against minors have particularly dangerous negative consequences:
signicant deterioration of physical and mental health in further life;
committing violence by them in adulthood; social maladaptation; excessive
victimisation. In order to avoid the recurrence of crimes against minors
who are already victims, in order to restore the rights of minor victims,
criminal oenses that have already been committed should be investigated
using all available legal means in criminal proceedings, one of which is the
interrogation of victims and witnesses in the course of pre-trial proceedings.
But no matter how dicult it is for minors to recall and recount the
details of the crimes committed against them, interrogation is an important
tactical pre-trial investigation procedure that is conducted in every criminal
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Olga Y. Guseva, Myroslav V. Popovych, Lyubov M. Hryndey, Oksana V. Melnyk y Mykhailo
V. Huzela
Features of Interrogation of Minor Victims in the Pre-Trial Investigation
proceeding without exception. Interrogation is a specic investigative
action carried out in accordance with the law by an authorised person,
which is aimed at obtaining information about the procedurally signicant
circumstances of a criminal oense from the participants in criminal
proceedings (witness, victim, suspect, expert) (Walsh et al., 2017). And, as
noted above, the interrogation of minors should be conducted according
to dierent rules and with the use of other tactics than the interrogation of
adults.
The tactics of interrogation of a minor victim of a crime are legally
dened in the national criminal procedural legislation of the vast majority
of countries. In addition, the principles, rules, basic measures, and purpose
of interrogation of this category of victims in the pre-trial investigation are
enshrined in the provisions of international regulations (see Table 2).
Table 2. Enshrinement of the procedure for interrogation of
minors in a pre-trial investigation (according to national and
international criminal procedural legislation)
Country Regulation
Republic of
Azerbaijan
Art. 96 “Specialists”
Art. 228 “Questioning of under-age witnesses”
Art. 429 “Circumstances to be established during
proceedings concerning minors”
Albania
Art. 58/a. “The rights of the minor victim”
Art. 169 “Grounds for confrontation”
Georgia Art. 50 “Persons who are not be obliged to act as a witness”
Republic of
Moldova
Art. 6 “Terms and Expressions Used in this Code”
Art. 110 “Special Methods for Examining a Witness and for
His/Her Protection”
Art. 371 “Reading Out in a Hearing Statements of a Witness”
Russian
Federation
Art. 280 “Specics in an Interrogation of a Minor Victim
and Witness”
Republic of
Estonia
§ 70 “Specications concerning hearing of witnesses who
are minors”
Ukraine
Art. 226 “Specicities of interrogating a child or an
underage”
Art. 227 “Participation of a legal representative, pedagogue,
psychologist, or medical practitioner in investigative
(detective) actions with involvement of a child or an
underage”
Art. 336 “Conducting of procedural actions during court
proceedings through video conference”
Art. 354 “Specic features of examining a minor or
underage witness or victim”
Republic of
Bulgaria
Art. 140 “Interrogation of a juvenile witness”
Art. 212 “Initiation of pre-trial procedure”
Art. 223. “Interrogation of a witness before a judge”
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
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France
Art. 80-3 (the start of the investigation)
Art. 706-17 (investigation of minors)
Art. 706-47 (PECIAL PROCEDURE APPLICABLE TO
SEXUAL OFFENCES AND TO THE PROTECTION OF
JUVENILE VICTIMS)
Netherlands
Section 167a (about a minor who is twelve years or older)
Section 488 (Criminal Proceedings in Matters concerning
Persons who have not yet reached the Age of Eighteen
Years)
Norway Section 128 (examine a child under 16 years of age)
Republic of
Poland
Chapter 21 “WITNESSES” (art. 177-192)
Portugal
Art. 91 “Oath and commitment”
Art. 132 “Rights and duties of witnesses”
Art. 134 “Refusal to testify”
Art. 138 “Examination rules”
Turkey
Art. 172 “Decision on no-ground for prosecution”
Art. 233 “Summoning of the victim and the claimant”
Art. 234 “The rights of the victim and the claimant”
Art. 236 “Hearing of the victim and the claimant”
UN Convention
on the Rights of
the Child
Art.39
Optional Protocol
to the Convention
on the Rights of
the Child on the
Sale of Children,
Child Prostitution
and Child
Pornography
Art. 8
Guidelines on
Justice in Matters
Involving Child
Victims and
Witnesses of
Crime
Art. 29
Art. 30
Art. 31
Council of Europe
Convention on
the Protection
of Children
against Sexual
Exploitation and
Sexual Abuse No.
201
Art. 35
Guidelines of the
Committee of
Ministers of the
Council of Europe
on Child-Friendly
Justice
Part 6 “Children’s testimonies/statements”
Source: Council of Europe (2007, 2011); Legislation online (n. d.),
United Nations (1990, 2000, 2005, 2008).
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Olga Y. Guseva, Myroslav V. Popovych, Lyubov M. Hryndey, Oksana V. Melnyk y Mykhailo
V. Huzela
Features of Interrogation of Minor Victims in the Pre-Trial Investigation
All these procedural rules are built with maximum regard to the principle
of child-friendly justice. According to the legal denition, child-friendly
justice is an accessible system of justice that guarantees respect for the
rights of the child in justice (the right to respect for private and family life,
the right to inviolability, the right to dignity) and their realization, taking
into account the principles of justice and the child’s maturity and his/
her understanding of the events that have taken place; is careful, adapted
and aimed at the realisation of the child’s right to participate in court
proceedings in the manner prescribed by law (UNDOC, 2015). Within this
understanding of child-friendly justice, the basic principles of investigative
actions at all stages of criminal proceedings are identied, as well as the
rules of its implementation, the so-called “Miranda Warning” (Caccarozzo,
2014) (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Rules and Principles of Child-Friendly Justice
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
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Interrogation at the stage of pre-trial investigation, taking into account
these principles and compliance with established rules, is conducted by
specialists in the eld of justice. Their attitude to minor victims and the way
of communicating with them should be special, dierent from the attitude to
adult victims, taking into account the peculiarities of the socio-psychological
development of children. A sincere and friendly attitude towards children
should be as follows: children - victims and witnesses of crimes should be
provided with comprehensive support throughout the proceedings in the
interests of the child; ensuring the maximum degree of certainty about
the process by forming in children a clear idea of the course of pre-trial
and judicial investigation; ensuring the shortest possible terms of pre-trial
and court proceedings with the possible avoidance of re-interrogation;
ensuring the availability of special rooms for children for interrogation,
adapting courtrooms to the interests of children, determining breaks and
deadlines for hearing children and creating a special notication system for
summoning a child to pre-trial and court proceedings (UNDOC, 2015). And
as part of the interrogation of minor victims in a pre-trial investigation, the
investigator and other law enforcement ocials must follow certain rules
(August and Henderson, 2021) (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Rules of interrogation of a minor victim
496
Olga Y. Guseva, Myroslav V. Popovych, Lyubov M. Hryndey, Oksana V. Melnyk y Mykhailo
V. Huzela
Features of Interrogation of Minor Victims in the Pre-Trial Investigation
Despite the legislative regulation of tactics and methods of interrogation
of minor victims in pre-trial proceedings in both international and national
law, the practical conduct of this investigative action has a number of
imperfections, legislative inaccuracies and gaps, which negatively aects
both minors and does not give the desired procedural result. First of all,
these inaccuracies relate to the declarative nature of the vast majority of
the provisions of the above rules, because the content of these provisions
is almost not disclosed and not specied. This, in turn, creates obstacles
for the procedural practice of interrogation of minor victims in pre-trial
proceedings. The need to specify the main provisions of the legislation
in this area of regulation is due to the psychological component of the
interrogation of a minor victim in pre-trial proceedings, which is not often
paid attention to by the persons authorised to conduct interrogation in pre-
trial investigation.
First of all, the psycho-physiological and psychological characteristics
of both children of a certain age in general and each individual child
should be taken into account during the interrogation of a minor victim.
Forensic psychology experts come to the aid in this matter, conducting a
number of psychological examinations of the minor victim before the pre-
trial investigation: rst, it is an examination of individual psychological
characteristics of the minor victim, which helps predict the behaviour of this
person in a particular situation; second, examination of the minor’s ability
to be understand and control his/her actions, to correctly perceive and
describe the circumstances, to resist. On the basis of such an examination,
the investigator nds out how important and informative the interrogation
of such a person will be and how important it will be to establish the
identity of the perpetrator and the circumstances of the crime. In this case,
the examination of a psychologist becomes extremely important. Therefore,
such an examination should not be appointed at the investigator’s request
and not in some cases, but always if the victim being interrogated is a minor.
A safe and friendly environment must be created during the interrogation
in order for the minor to provide the necessary and true information, which
will facilitate the establishment of psychologically comfortable contact
between the victim and the investigator. It also depends on the psychological
characteristics of the development of the child of a certain age category,
and the ability to assess and identify these features will help to establish
an appropriate atmosphere of interrogation. Specialists in age pedagogy
and psychology have the necessary knowledge in the eld of determining
communication tactics and creating a favourable atmosphere. Therefore,
rst, in each case the person who will conduct interrogation of a minor
victim should consult specialists in age pedagogy and age psychology, and
second, the presence of a teacher and psychologist during the interrogation
of a minor victim and assistance to the investigator must be mandatory
throughout the interrogation.
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The interrogation of a minor victim in pre-trial proceedings is an
investigative action with its own specics, and therefore its implementation
by an investigator without special training, knowledge and skills will not
be eective and will not bring the desired procedural result. Therefore,
the investigator must undergo special training in order to understand the
peculiarities of communication with minor victims and apply in practice
a specic interrogation technique to prevent further psychological trauma
to the child on the one hand and obtain truth and clear evidence. Such
training can be provided by special educational courses for investigators,
who will further specialise in working with minors in pre-trial investigation.
Every institution carrying out a pre-trial investigation should have such
investigators. In addition, it is desirable that such investigators be of both
sexes, as depending on the nature of the crimes committed against minors
and the specics of the child victims themselves, in some cases minor victims
are more open to communicating with women (victims of sexual crimes,
female victims). All this will ultimately contribute to the preservation and
faster recovery of the mental and psychological health of the minor victim.
In pre-trial proceedings there is a person endowed with specic powers
— an investigating judge. An investigating judge is a judge of the court of rst
instance who, within the criminal proceedings, exercises judicial control
over the state of observance of human rights and freedoms, including at the
stage of pre-trial investigation. To monitor the observance of the rights of a
minor victim, the investigating judge must know the principles of criminal
proceedings involving a minor, as well as the rules and rights of a minor
victim during interrogation in the pre-trial investigation mentioned above.
But such specialisation also requires special training and appropriate
qualications of this specially authorised person. The participation of such
an investigating judge should also be mandatory in pre-trial proceedings
involving a minor victim.
The authorised person conducting the interrogation should take into
account the dierences in the way the child perceives information when
communicating with adults, in particular the persons conducting the
interrogation, and the way children communicate in general. In particular,
this concerns the wording of the questions to which the investigator
expects to receive a reliable and complete answer. The questions should
be clear and understandable(preferably formulated in advance, before
the interrogation), in the most simplied language with the use of specic
guiding question words “Who?”, “What?”, “How?”, “Which?”; taking into
account the emotional state of the child and the specics of the description
of events, using elements of the game, the child’s analytical abilities, in
accordance with the age characteristics of minors; the questions should not
be alternative and should not lead to a “correct” or “incorrect” answer from
the investigator’s point of view.
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However, these problematic aspects of the interrogation of minor
victims can be resolved. In order to eliminate inaccuracies and ll legal
gaps in the interrogation of minor victims during pre-trial proceedings, it
is necessary to clarify the rules of international and, accordingly, national
regulations as follows, including the following provisions: examination by
a psychologist is mandatory if the interrogated victim is a minor; in each
case of interrogation of a minor victim a person who will conduct it shall
consult specialists in age pedagogy and age psychology; the presence of
a teacher and psychologist during the interrogation of the minor victim
and assistance to the investigator throughout the interrogation must be
mandatory; the interrogation of a minor victim should be conducted by an
investigator who has undergone the necessary training on the specics of
this investigative action involving minors, which must be in each institution
conducting the pre-trial investigation; investigators of both sexes must be
specially trained for the interrogation of a minor; to monitor the observance
of the rights of a minor victim, an investigating judge should have special
training and appropriate qualications, whose participation should be
mandatory in pre-trial proceedings with the involvement of a minor victim;
the questions should be clear and understandable, in the most simplied
language with the use of particular guiding words, taking into account the
emotional state of the child and the specics of the description of events,
with no alternatives and putting answers in minor’s mind. Regulatory
enshrinement of such clarications will greatly simplify the interrogation
of a minor victim in pre-trial proceedings in practice.
3. Discussion
The interrogation of a minor victim in a pre-trial investigation is a specic
investigative action that is regulated at the level of both international and
national law, although not as perfectly as practice requires. But this does not
mean that the provision of comprehensive protection and regulation of the
rights of this category of persons does not receive adequate state support
and necessary resources. In particular, in recent years, the protection of
children’s rights in criminal proceedings was the focus at the level of both
international justice and national procedural law of individual countries
(Liefaard and Van den Brink, 2014).
It is believed that the characteristics of minor victims, which are the
immaturity of judgments and considerations, adversely aect their ability
to provide reliable information during interrogation in the pre-trial
investigation. We cannot fully agree with this statement, as compliance
with procedural and psychological aspects, strict compliance with the law
on preparation, conduct and recording of interrogation and consideration
of mental characteristics, socio-psychological characteristics, temperament
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of the interrogated, adherence to high moral and tactful behaviour
during interrogation of a minor victim will ensure the eectiveness of
this investigative action (Dekailo and Blashchak, 2020). Indeed, when
conducting an interrogation taking into account all the features of
minor victims, the specics of the perception of the environment and in
accordance with the recommendations of a psychologist, the child is fully
able to consciously and accurately testify about the crime against him/her,
to build his/her own opinion so that the course of events and circumstances
its commission would be understandable.
Psychologists also question the fact that minors are able to fully exercise
their rights due to their immaturity and emotional and psychological
vulnerability and are therefore immune to interrogation tactics in criminal
proceedings. But, as noted above, this is all due to the use of standard
interrogation tactics applied to adults, and the vast majority of courts do
not require special procedural guarantees to interrogate minor victims. In
this case, the application of special tactics of interrogation of this category
of persons in the pre-trial investigation will help to overcome obstacles
related to the sociological and psychological characteristics of minors, and
allow minors to exercise their rights.
The conclusions made in this study are conrmed by the indication
that taking into account the psychological characteristics of minor victims
during interrogation will reduce the protective reaction of the child’s
psyche, reduce the likelihood of additional trauma during interrogation
and signicantly increase the eectiveness of interrogation (Miloradova
and Pashko, 2020). That is why the participation of an expert psychologist
in the pre-trial investigation during the interrogation of a minor victim
should be mandatory, not optional.
Conclusions
The interrogation of minor victims in pre-trial proceedings should be
conducted according to dierent rules and with the use of other tactics than
the interrogation of adults. The tactics of interrogation of a minor victim of
a crime are legally dened in the national criminal procedural legislation of
the vast majority of countries and in the provisions of international legal acts.
But the practical implementation of this investigative action has a number
of imperfections, legislative inaccuracies and gaps, which negatively aects
the minors themselves and does not give the desired procedural result.
In order to eliminate inaccuracies and ll legal gaps in the interrogation
of minor victims during pre-trial proceedings and increase its eectiveness,
it is necessary to clarify the rules of international and, accordingly,
national regulations, including the following provisions: psychologist’s
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Features of Interrogation of Minor Victims in the Pre-Trial Investigation
examination is mandatory if the interrogated victim is a minor; in each
case of interrogation of a minor victim it is necessary to consult specialists
in age pedagogy and age psychology; the presence of a teacher and a
psychologist during the interrogation of a minor victim is mandatory; the
interrogation of a minor victim must be carried out by a specially trained
investigator, who must be available in each institution conducting the pre-
trial investigation; investigators of both sexes must be specially trained for
the interrogation of a minor; an investigating judge shall exercise control
over the observance of the rights of a minor victim, who shall have a special
training and appropriate qualications and whose participation should be
mandatory in pre-trial proceedings with the involvement of a minor victim;
the questions shall be clear and simple, without alternative.
This study is not exhaustive and does not address all issues related
to the interrogation of minor victims in criminal proceedings. Instead,
the coverage of problematic aspects of this investigative action opens up
prospects for further research in this area, which will help improve the
regulatory framework and the practical implementation of the tactics of
interrogation of minor victims.
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Esta revista fue editada en formato digital y publicada
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