The Personality of the Defendant Through the Prism of Justice: Criminology and Criminal Procedure Aspects

Abstract

The article is devoted to integrated research of key milestones of criminological and criminal procedure aspects of knowing the personality of the defendant and to the identification of the existing problem of harmonizing these types of cognitive activities in the administration of justice. The authors stress the differences between the criminological and the criminal procedure interpretations of the personality of the defendant, which are also manifested in the interpretation of its structure. It is shown that the factor integrating the knowledge of the personality of the defendant during judicial proceedings is the inseparable unity of this knowledge with the process of proving. The limits of knowing the personality of the defendant in criminal proceedings are directly dependent on forms of knowing and vary under the influence of their differentiation. The article presents three levels of knowing the personality of the defendant in justice in the criminological and criminal procedure aspects: extended (proceedings in cases of minors and cases on using compulsory medical measures); ordinary (cases prosecuted in general and special procedures); differentiated (cases tried by juries). It is pointed out that the personality of the criminal is most thoroughly examined at the extended and ordinary levels of knowing, which is caused by the contents of the general and the special objects of proof, as well as the absence of any legislative limitations on the objects and means of proving the above-mentioned circumstances. Most problems connected with the limits of knowing the personality of the criminal arise when a case is tried by a jury, which is caused by the bifurcation of the object of this study on the conducted inquiry with or without the participation of the jury. Having chosen the substantive approach to solving this problem, the legislators identified the limits of knowing the personality of the defendant with the limits of the sphere (object) of the cognitive competence of jurors, and other information on the personality of the defendant is studied after the verdict. The authors analyze the problems of correlation between the criminological and criminal procedure aspects of knowing the personality of the defendant in trials by jury: the effectiveness of a substantive limitation of studying personal characteristics of the defendant by jurors and the opportunity to examine the facts pointing at the insanity of the defendant with the participation of jurors. The authors also describe the specific features of examining the personality of the defendant in the USA and in Austria. They conclude that it is necessary to widen the scope of examining the personality of the defendant in trials by jury.