Almanac of law. Issue 15 (2024), pages 301–306.

DOI: 10.33663/2524-017X-2024-15-301-306

Kuzminskyi O. О.
The procedural peculiarities with the pre-trail investigation towards the juvenile suspects

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of criminal proceedings against minor suspects (accused) at the stage of pre-trial investigation, which are regulated in international and national legal acts. The purpose of this study was to identify deficiencies in the regulatory and legal provision of pre-trial investigation of minor suspects (accused) and to develop proposals for their elimination. The analysis of juvenile delinquency indicates that they mainly commit serious and especially serious crimes, which indicates insufficient effectiveness of counteraction and prevention of such criminal acts. Minors, as a special category of persons, are subject to increased protection by state bodies and officials. The rules and regulations of the specified international and national regulatory legal acts are taken into account during the entire criminal proceedings, including at the stage of pre-trial investigation of criminal offenses involving minor suspects. It has been established that the norms of criminal procedural legislation, which determine the procedure for carrying out a pre-trial investigation of minor suspects, have certain shortcomings that do not contribute to the quality of pre-trial investigation of minors, often involve violations of the rights and interests of minor suspects, and also violate the procedural requirements established in current criminal procedural legislation of Ukraine and reduce the effectiveness of certain investigative actions in the pre-trial investigation regarding the specified category of persons. In this regard, it is proposed to make changes to the norms of the criminal procedural legislation and other legal acts that regulate the activities of state bodies and their employees in the pre-trial investigation of minor suspects (accused), namely: make appropriate changes in Art. 488 of the Code of Civil Procedure in the part of the legislative establishment of the procedure for revocation (refusal) of the legal representative by the minor himself; provide in the relevant legal acts the obligation to acquire the necessary knowledge, abilities and skills in age pedagogy, age psychology and sociology, which will ensure the effectiveness of the pre-trial investigation of a minor suspect (accused).

This study, which concerns the debatable problematic procedural aspects of pre-trial investigation of minor suspects (accused), is not exhaustive and opens up prospects for further scientific research and development of practical recommendations in the researched area.

Key words: pre-trial investigation, criminal proceedings, juvenile suspect, juvenile accused, investigator, investigator, prosecutor, investigative judge, procedural actions, legal representative, juvenile delinquency, international law.

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Oleksiy Oleksandrovych Kuzminsky,
Senior Lecturer, Department of Intellectual Property and Civil Law Disciplines, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National University of Cherkasy,
Candidate of Law
ORCID: 0000-0001-6645-0619