Problems of questioning victims and witnesses in cases of iatrogenic crimes

Abstract

The investigation of iatrogenic crimes is markedly complex due to the ambiguity of the rules governing medical treatment. The specific nature of victims and medical witnesses necessitates a systematic review of numerous tactical provisions. The personal characteristics of victims and witnesses are examined, the subject of their interrogation is determined, and the documents presented during the interrogation are also considered. The difficulty of assessing the investigative situation prior to and during the interrogation is highlighted. It is suggested that the question of the victim's condition prior to the relevant medical treatment be included in the content of the interrogation of the persons concerned. Existing classifications of witnesses are assessed and necessary clarification is made as regards their division into stable and unstable. The problem of the language style of communication between the investigator and the interrogated persons, first and foremost the witnesses with medical knowledge, is examined. Its essence is that besides an aspect of an establishment and maintenance of the psychological contact with the interrogator, reached by the understandable for the named person terminological content of dialogue, there is an searching-cognitive aspect of the special terminology, which is objectively difficult to avoid due to the character of clear circumstances, mediating the sphere of the medical aid. From the point of view of the predictive function of this study, a way of solving this problem is outlined. In the authors' opinion, it consists in conjunction of functional manifestation of identity of an investigator with the subject-terminological discourse, defined in the most general form of a criminological characteristic of the investigated crime (groups of crimes), each element of which more or less has its own terminological description. When preparing to question witnesses and victims, it is suggested that so-called duplicate questions be formulated which would preserve the specifics of the subject matter of the case as reflected in the interrogation report and at the same time contain the necessary clarifications of the relevant testimony. The views on the types of criminal violations of medical treatment activity are evaluated. The conclusion is made that deontological violations, manifested in the deviation from medical ethics, cannot be considered a criminal violation of medical treatment activities, as they are not included in the mechanism of crime as an element of the criminological characteristics of the crimes under consideration. For the same reason, omissions in the completion of medical records, manifested in obscure, inaccurate entries should not be included in the number of criminal violations of the rules of medical and therapeutic activity. The possibility of building algorithms for the investigation of iatrogenic crimes depending on the type of criminal violation of the rules of medical practice is pointed out. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.