Legal basis for forensic psychological examinations of children in contact with the law

Анотація

An analysis of international and national law provisions has been conducted from the perspective of the legal grounds for conducting forensic psychological examinations of children who are in contact with the law. It is shown that the norms of international law and, to a lesser extent, national norms indicate psychological facts that may be of legal significance for law enforcement practitioners in establishing the qualifying grounds for a crime, assessing children’s testimony, and contain guidelines and recommendations for organising investigations in such a way as to create optimal conditions for restoring appropriate conditions for the development of a child in conflict with the law, overcoming the negative consequences of unlawful events of which the child has been a victim or witness . The regulations mainly refer to the quality and duration of investigations, avoiding the psychotraumatic impact on the child of the investigation and court proceedings, reducing the number of interviews and giving due attention to children’s testimony.