Combined (Visual-Verbal) Investigative Actions: Legal Nature and Significance for Proof

Abstract

Russian criminal procedure legislation provides for investigative actions based on a combined combination of visual and verbal perception. At the theoretical level, to date, some problems of the evidentiary significance of the results of these investigative actions and their place in evidence in a criminal case have not been solved. The aim of the study is to develop an optimal theoretical model for using combined investigative actions in proving the results. The objectives of the study are: to analyze the legal nature of these actions, to distinguish elements of visual and verbal perception in their structure, to identify the possibility of removing material objects during the investigative actions under consideration, to establish the possibility of announcing the protocols of investigative actions in a court hearing. The study is based on the dialectical-materialistic general method, which involves the study of phenomena in systemic communication and totality, as well as on general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, and private-legal methods. Results of the Study. A distinction was made between the ratio of visual and verbal components in various investigative actions. Based on this, it was concluded that material objects could be removed as part of the verification of evidence on the spot, and this was impossible during the investigative experiment and verification of evidence on the spot. It is stated that the information provided in the course of conducting the investigated investigative actions verbally does not relate to the testimony. The results of all the indicated investigative actions in terms of the types of evidence are minutes and are subject to announcement at the court hearing, regardless of the existence of conditions established by law for the announcement of evidence. The results of combined investigative actions have important evidentiary significance in the paradigm of a mixed type of criminal process. The author believes that this type of proceedings is optimal, which requires an improvement in the regulatory design of combined investigative actions.