Abstract

BURBANO, Juan Pablo; MEDINA, John Jairo  and  SALCEDO-CIFUENTES, Mercedes. Use given to expert evidences and witnesses in legal proceedings on offense cases involving minors under 14 sentenced in 2012-2014 in San Juan de Pasto. Rev. Crim. [online]. 2018, vol.60, n.1, pp.23-32. ISSN 1794-3108.

Expert evidence is very frequent in judicial proceedings on sexual offenses. The objective of this paper was to analyze the use of expert evidence in cases dealing with this type of crimes against minors under the age of 14, sentenced in 2012-2014 in San Juan de Pasto. With the use of this method, a descriptive/retrospective study was carried out in the revision of 21 sentences. Socio-demographic variables of the victim/aggressor and the fact’s context were assessed, as well as those of medical-legal/scientific forensic nature used in the legal proceeding. In the SPSS analyses carried out, central trend measures were calculated on the quantitative variables and proportions on the qualitative ones. The Z test was used, and a p≤0.05 value was deemed to be significant. Results showed that minors under 4 and 10 years of age were the most affected victims while their main aggressors were used as a proof found among acquaintances and family members. In 81% of the sentences, the forensic psychology report was followed-up by the legal doctor. The conclusion was that judges do often use the forensic psychology report in decision making; but, nevertheless, this is the evidence most controverted by the defense.

Keywords : Sexual offenses; sentences; medicine; expert evidence; medical opinion; psychological opinion.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )