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In criminal proceedings, the establishment of facts beyond reasonable doubt is a cornerstone principle, ensuring that criminal offenses are accurately identified and perpetrators are justly punished while respecting the rights of all parties involved. The proof process is vital, with evidence playing an essential role in determining the outcomes of various procedural stages. Among the types of evidence, expert evidence has become increasingly significant, especially with advances in science and technology broadening the scope of issues requiring specialized knowledge. This paper aims to analyze the roles and impacts of professional and expert activities in criminal procedures. It seeks to highlight the distinctions between expert reports and professional statements, illustrating their respective legal standings and importance in the context of Slovak law. By examining the regulatory framework, specifically Act No. 382/2004 Coll. on experts, interpreters, and translators, and the Criminal Procedure Code (Act No. 301/2005 Coll.), the paper delves into the conditions, rights, and obligations of experts. Additionally, it addresses the significance of expert consultants introduced by the Criminal Procedure Code, who provide advisory services without precluding the involvement of expert witnesses for comprehensive technical assessments. Expert reports, governed by stringent formalities, are pivotal in addressing complex technical issues within criminal cases. These reports must be produced by court-appointed experts and include detailed descriptions of the methods used and the conclusions drawn. Conversely, professional statements, considered documentary evidence, do not carry the same legal weight and lack the formalities required for expert reports. The Criminal Procedure Code also ensures that expert evidence is used appropriately by stipulating when and how expert opinions should be sought. This comprehensive approach ensures that all technical and scientific issues are thoroughly examined, contributing to the fair administration of justice. In conclusion, the integration of expert and professional activities in criminal proceedings enhances the accuracy and reliability of judicial decisions. By leveraging specialized knowledge, the legal system can better fulfill its mandate of delivering justice while upholding the principles of fairness and due process. This paper underscores the necessity of clear regulatory frameworks and th e proper application of expert evidence to achieve these aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic psychiatric expertise is part of the judicial expertise category, which finds its express regulation in art. 184 of the Criminal Procedure Code, being a relevant evidentiary process to ensure justice. Considering its specific role, regarding the establishment of objective evidence in the criminal process, the medico-legal psychiatric expertise has as its fundamental task to determine the mental state condition of a person, at a certain moment, in connection with the commission of a criminal act. Thus, it consists in a complex medical activity, ordered by the judicial body and conducted by a committee within a forensic medical institution, only after obtaining the written consent of the person to be subjected to examination. In accordance with the rigors imposed by the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code and also by the special regulations, useful in the practice of expertise, the performance of this technical-scientific activity must take place with respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common knowledge of how society works stands as sufficient proof to how wide is the array of mental disorders that have a significant impact on what is specific to certain offenders. The purpose of this thesis is to raise the level of awareness regarding the degree in which such persons, duly diagnosed with this type of deviant behaviour, pose a threat to society, and to also consider the response to such conduct, which should consist in security measures that are able to contain urges of such kind, desires that most of the times escape some of the aggressors’ ability to control on their own. Therefore, we emphasise that, in order to prevent more people from falling victim to such persons, a firm reaction of the legislators is considered mandatory, followed by a similar reaction from the judicial bodies, especially in regard to those who admit and accept the fact that they suffer from this type of conditions, as we are about to demonstrate.

Copyright of Revista Didasc@lia: Didáctica y Educación is the property of Universitaria de Las Tunas, Centro de Estudios de Didactica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background/Objective: The expert report is a tool used by the forensic psychologist to scientifically support the psychological evaluation and communicate his or her decision regarding the expert object to the legal operator. However, psychological assessments elaborated for these types of cases often use protocols and emit conclusions without the accuracy and rigor required for the judicial context. It is common that these do not present a proper structure, or a logical continuity that integrates the results, and that their considerations are unclear or contradictory due to an incorrect choice of evaluation techniques. Method: This article presents an expert counter-report where the structure, content, methodology, and conclusions of a psychological expert report based on the Statement Reality Analysis (SVA) technique are analyzed. The report evaluates the truthfulness of the testimony of an alleged minor victim of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), which is the typical evidence used in Legal Medicine and Forensic Science Institutes. Results: The analysis and review of the report revealed deficiencies in the method, premises, and conclusions. Conclusions: It is concluded that the quality assessment of psychological reports as the evidence used in CSA cases based on the SVA must be systematically cross-checked to verify the compliance with the scientific, legal, and jurisprudential standards. Also, when these reports are used as evidence, it should be verified compliance with the principle of the presumption of innocence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L'expertise judiciaire fait fréquemment l'objet de publications ; cependant, peu de travaux francophones s'intéressent aux modalités de restitution écrite d'une évaluation expertale, c'est-à-dire à la manière dont le rapport d'expertise est présenté et rédigé par son auteur, dans l'objectif de répondre aux questions posées par les autorités judiciaires et d'aider à la prise de décision. La manière dont le rapport est rédigé peut avoir une incidence sur la perception de la situation de l'expertisé, sur la valeur accordée à ce travail complexe d'évaluation et sur les décisions judiciaires. Ainsi, cet article vise à recenser les principales critiques mentionnées dans la littérature scientifique concernant les rapports d'expertise, et les ressources pour les améliorer et les rendre conformes aux attentes professionnelles. Cet article présente une recension narrative des écrits scientifiques. Il est basé sur des publications anglophones et francophones rapportant des études et revues de littérature concernant les rapports d'expertise judiciaires dans le domaine de la psychologie et psychiatrie légales. La recension des travaux dégage quatre axes qui peuvent affecter la qualité du rapport écrit : le cadre expertal et la position de l'expert ; la terminologie et les modes d'écriture utilisés dans le rapport ; le manque de référence aux principes généraux d'une évaluation psycho-légale ; les faiblesses dans l'organisation des données présentées dans l'expertise et dans la démarche argumentative pour répondre aux questions. Les faiblesses rapportées pourraient être améliorées par la formation des experts, les guides d'évaluation, la collégialité d'experts et les listes de contrôle. Forensic assessments are mandated by judicial authorities to answer various questions and to assist in the judicial decision-making process. Judicial expertise is frequently the subject of publications; however, few French-speaking studies have focused on written forensic reports, i.e. the way in which the report is presented and written by the author. The way in which the report is written could have an impact on the perception of the situation of the person being assessed, on the value attributed to this complex assessment, and on the judicial decisions. Thus, the objective of this article is to review the main criticisms in forensic reports in scientific literature, as well as the resources that could help to improve them and ensure conformity to professional expectations. This article presents a narrative review of the scientific literature. It focuses on English and French publications and literature reviews in the field of forensic psychology and psychiatry. The review of the literature identified four aspects that could affect the quality of the report: 1/The expert framework and the position of the expert; 2/The terminology and writing styles used in the report; 3/The lack of reference to general principles of psycho-legal assessment; and 4/Weaknesses in the organization of the data and in the argumentative approach to answering the questions. The weaknesses identified in the literature reviewed could be improved through training of the experts, the implementation of assessment guides, experts' collegiality, and checklists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executive Summary: Will recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) leave the United States if a legal challenge succeeds in ending this important program? The fate of over 600,000 current DACA recipients may depend on answers to this question in one expert report and one online survey question, which a Texas District Court found to show "a quantifiable percentage" would leave. Had the District Court in its DACA ruling not credited these sources, Texas' lawsuit could have collapsed, and DACA would persist. The issue of whether DACA recipients will leave if DACA is ended will matter as this case is litigated, most likely to be decided by the Supreme Court. Drawing on research on immigrant return, DACA recipients, survey questions, priming, and intention-behavior gap, this paper argues that this expert report and the single online survey question used by the District Court cannot support the inferences regarding the return of DACA recipients to their birth countries. Rather, relevant research points toward DACA recipients staying in the United States, even if DACA were terminated. The paper recommends offering DACA recipients and long term undocumented residents a short path to legal status and citizenship, reassessing whether these two sources can support the conclusions drawn by the District Court; and analyzing the benefits accruing from DACA to Texas and all Texans, including US citizen children of DACA recipients, in assessing the claimed injury to the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes Robert K. Merton’s theory of the self-fulfilling prophecy, focusing on how the theory was used in US legal proceedings after 1954 concerning how state authorities should enforce racial desegregation in public schools. In those encounters, Merton's theory was used to support both immediate integration of schools and a much more gradualist reform program. The article argues that the self-fulfilling prophecy served opposite political ends because of its endogenous properties, notably its generality and ambiguity, and because of certain exogenous factors, notably the adversarial nature of U.S. court proceedings and the different political cultures that theory users inhabited.

In the process of investigating and discovering crimes, examining criminal cases in the court session, issues and questions often arise, the solution of which requires the application of specialized knowledge in the field of science, technology, art or craft. These questions are resolved by persons possessing special knowledge and invested with appropriate powers in this respect. The knowledge obtained by certain subjects in the process of practical activity through the special training or professional experience they possess, based on a system of theoretical knowledge in the respective field, is recognized as special. However, the possibilities of forensics in ensuring that the judicial bodies obtain authentic, accurate and objective information regarding the crimes committed are constantly increasing. Currently, the science of forensics is in full development and consolidation. Forensic researchers, in the scientific works developed, make heavy use of modern achievements in various fields of science. This direction of scientific and practical research has become one of the most important in the further improvement of the forensic activity of investigation and detection of crimes. As a result, the creative potential of forensics is continuously expanding, and the arsenal of tools, procedures and methods recommended by it is becoming more and more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to indicate the situations in which it is possible to order a technical-scientific finding in a criminal trial and the situations in which it is possible to order an expertise, so as to avoid situations in which the procedural rights of the parties and the procedural subjects are violated. Also, the main objective of this article is to draw attention to the fact that ordering a finding is an exceptional procedural measure, and the rule is represented by the disposition in question of an expertise, since only within the latter can the parties express their procedural rights provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the right regulated by Law no. 31/1990 on companies1 (hereinafter "Law no. 31/1990") of the shareholders to request the court to appoint one or more experts appointed to write an expert report to verify certain facts and operations of the management of a company, specifically indicated by the claimant and registered with the competent court. The provisions of article 136 of Law no. 31/1990 govern the conditions under which one or more shareholders may proceed with such a request: (i) the shareholder or the shareholders must hold, individually or jointly, at least 10% of the company's share capital; (ii) the facts and/or operations that are to be analyzed to be specifically indicated by the claimant in the proposed objectives. The expert report will be formally submitted to the board of directors and the supervisory board, as well as to the company's internal auditors or censors, in order to be analyzed and to propose appropriate measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the historical evolution of the psychosocial report, which has been the principal document which psychosocial professionals have done from their beginnings to the present day. Evolution towards other required formats in the civil judicial environment, such as the expert report, directly related with judicial approaches to family conflicts and with adoption processes. We show the developments and figures in terms of adoptions in Spain, which show the stability presented by annual national adoption data in Spain, in extant figures from the last decade along with the drop in figures referring to international adoptions in the same period. After showing what some research says about Spain adoption and the studies published on the theme, along with its early media repercussions which were the fruit of failure to meet intended expectations, a series of action proposals and professional interventions were carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Belügyi Szemle / Academic Journal of Internal Affairs is the property of Ministry of Interior of Hungary and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Turkiye Klinikleri Journal of Forensic Medicine & Forensic Sciences / Türkiye Klinikleri Adli Tıp ve Adli Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Turkiye Klinikleri and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

At the end of the Middle Ages, the judges from the Parliament of Paris consulted medical experts for advice on the severity of victims’ physical injuries, or the causes of their death but also on the professional competence of the practitioners wishing to have license to practise medicine or surgery in Paris. The analysis of a collection of lawsuits during which the court required civilian assessments of proficiency, allows us to question the summoned experts’ status and authority as well as the relevance of the medical expertise to the required professional certification, usually delivered in Paris by the physicians from the Faculty of Medicine or by the sworn surgeons and barbers from the trade associations. Having heard the expert reports, the court could issue prohibitions to practise, thereby protecting the population from uncertified practitioners who had been disqualified as incompetent. Occasionally, the court could also grant some individuals who were in conflict with the medical groups a license to practise medicine, thus refusing to deprive the population of a proficient practitioner’s help when a positive expert report proved his abilities.

Per request of MD, Dr Sci Med, Professor, Academician of RAS Nikolay N. Volodin, President of Russian association of specialists in perinatal medicine (RASPM) one of leading specialists in obstetrics, gynecology and perinatal medicine in the world prof. Gian Carlo Di Renzo have prepared the Expert Report on the Elina Sushkevich case. Taken into account the importance of this case for healthcare professionals, we publish the full text in the original and translated into Russian.

This study analyzes the right regulated by Law no. 31/1990 on companies1 (hereinafter “Law no. 31/1990”) of the shareholders to request the court to appoint one or more experts appointed to write an expert report to verify certain facts and operations of the management of a company, specifically indicated by the claimant and registered with the competent court. The provisions of article 136 of Law no. 31/1990 govern the conditions under which one or more shareholders may proceed with such a request: (i) the shareholder or the shareholders must hold, individually or jointly, at least 10% of the company's share capital; (ii) the facts and/or operations that are to be analyzed to be specifically indicated by the claimant in the proposed objectives. The expert report will be formally submitted to the board of directors and the supervisory board, as well as to the company's internal auditors or censors, in order to be analyzed and to propose appropriate measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Medical nutrition therapy is one of the core components of patient management, although its implication is still limited in Daily practice globally. Clinicians are in need of guidance that will ease the application of medical nutrition therapy. The pre- and post-graduate curriculum for medical nutrition therapy is limited in most regions, worldwide. A report that is short, clear, and having clear-cut recommendations that will guide the primary healthcare professionals in indications, choice, practical application, follow-up, and stopping parenteral nutrition (PN) would facilitate the application and success of medical nutrition therapy. KEPAN is the Clinical Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition Society of Turkey and is an active member of the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN)., Method: In this study, we present the KEPAN PN consensus report on optimal PN use in medical nutrition therapy as outlined by the works of academicians experienced in the clinical application of PN (nine working group academicians and 10 expert group academicians)., Results: This report provides 22 clear-cut recommendations in a question-answer format., Conclusions: We believe that this report could have a significant impact on the optimum use of PN in the context of medical nutrition therapy when clinicians manage everyday patients., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A new institution, that of the forensic expert recommended by the parties, has been regulated in the field of forensic medicine. Corroborating the new regulation with the existing ones in the field, it is found that the guarantee of procedural rights, conferred by the right of the party to recommend a forensic expert, is not fully effective, on the considerations analyzed extensively in the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime Scene Investigation is the backbone of any criminal investigation. Expert report generated by Crime Scene Investigators are based on scientific evidence and are reported in a standard form. The content, when published should be reviewed rigorously by its peers. The expert report is a document detailing out how the investigation process of a crime scene was performed. The process of collecting and evidence processing do not only entail identifying, collecting and storing evidences for later analysis but it is a step by step process that is well structured in a document called Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Crime Scene Investigator. SOP is a complex document and sometimes overwhelmingly technical for the uninitiated. But if understood, it can be a good guide for law practitioners to determine if a piece of evidence should be included in a case. This article details out the SOP which entails groundwork before entering a crime scene, processing of a crime scene and wrapping up of the crime scene investigation. At each step, this paper will look at how it is adopted in current practices, its weakness and suggested improvement that should be adopted to ensure a final quality expert report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of the initial examination of the finger marks at the crime scene have an important role in planning of special investigation measures, because, frequently they represent sources of information that make possible the proper discovery and assessment of the evidence. The conclusions formulated based on the initial research can be used, in most cases, for operative-investigative purposes. The mechanism of formation of traces, the number of participants in the crime, the consecutiveness and the content of the committed actions are determined based on the analysis of the particularities of the traces, of the quantitative and topographic parameters, with taking into account the factual status from the place of the crime. Sometimes, based on the fingerprints discovered at the scene, certain pathological-anatomical features of the person who formed them can be established. The traces found may indicate the absence of fingers, phalanges, and their deformity, the presence of scars or changes in the relief of the skin. The latter, as a rule, appear as a result of certain diseases. The dactyloscopic identification investigations are carried out in the form of judicial expertise. It establishes the identity of a particular person based on the shape of the papillary drawings, reflected in the traces of hands at the place of the deed. The object of the fingerprint identification expertise is represented by the traces of the papillary drawings and the experimental fingerprints - the so-called samples for comparative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Per request of MD, Dr Sci Med, Professor, Academician of RAS Nikolay N. Volodin, President of Russian association of specialists in perinatal medicine (RASPM) one of leading specialists in obstetrics, gynecology and perinatal medicine in the world prof. Gian Carlo Di Renzo have prepared the Expert Report on the Elina Sushkevich case. Taken into account the importance of this case for healthcare professionals, we publish the full text in the original and translated into Russian.

Der Anteil jener psychisch kranken, jedoch zurechnungsfähigen Straftäter, die in Österreich nach einer Unterbringung in einer Maßnahme nach § 21 Abs. 2 StGB erneut straffällig wurden, ist über viele Jahre stark gesunken. In einer empirischen Studie wurden Entlassungsgruppen im Detail untersucht und verglichen, um mögliche Ursachen für diese Veränderung zu identifizieren. Es zeigte sich, dass neben einer über die Zeit besseren Selektion bereits entlassungsbereiter Personen primär Verbesserungen in der Betreuung während der Unterbringung sowie im Zuge der bedingten Entlassung für die positive Entwicklung ausschlaggebend waren. The number of mentally ill offenders who relapsed into crime after having been released from a custodial measure regulated by § 21 para. 2 Austrian Criminal Code declined considerably over the years. Two groups of former detainees differing in their date of release were examined to identify the changes and developments leading to this decrease. On the one hand, improvements in the experts' reports used to assess the future risk of former detainees became apparent, enhancing the accuracy of this selection process. On the other hand, changes were discovered concerning the treatment during the confinement as well as the circumstances created for the time of the conditional release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Selcuk Law Review / Selçuk Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of Selcuk Law Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Rechtsmedizin is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Key stages in the establishment and further development of the institution of special knowledge in Russia is analyzed, from the pre-revolutionary period to our days. The procedural status of forensic science, forensic experts and forensic specialists in the Russian criminal procedure is examined. The procedural status of experts and specialists in the Russian criminal procedure is compared to that in other countries. The author observes that in the early stages the functions of knowledgeable persons were not clearly delineated by the law, and there were no regulations on how forensic evidence analysis should be requested and conducted, but by the mid-1920s the terms «forensic science» and «forensic expert» were present in the Russian legislation. The procedure for requesting and conducting forensic examinations was defined starting in 1960; the use of special knowledge in investigative actions became the function of the specialist. The status of the specialist was further elaborated in 1966. With the adoption of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation in 2001, the specialist's legal status was expanded, giving them the right to present their opinion and testify on the probative value of evidence, and their rights and responsibilities were refined.