THE REASONS FOR THE ORIGINATION OF HONEST MISTAKES IN THE VICTIMS’ TESTIMONIES

Abstract

The article studies the mechanism of honest mistakes origination in the victims’ testimonies in the process ofperception, memorization and reproduction of the events of the crime. It investigates into the reasons for the origination of honest mistakes in the victims ’ testimonies and suggests their classification depending on: 1) the stage of the testimony formation; a) at the stage of perception: adaptation, contrast, physiological ailments, mental deficiencies, emotional stress, mental and physiological state; b) at the stage of memorization: interference, memory problems, mental illnesses, indoctrination; c) at the stage of reproduction: linguistic and logical distortions; 2) the permanence of reasons (permanent and temporal); 3) the nature of origin (inherent or acquired at the stage ofperception of the events of the crime); 4) the source of origin (external and internal); 5) the character of the honest mistake (objective and subjective). The article reasons that the efficiency of investigation within criminal proceedings is determined by timely identification of mistakes in obtained testimonies, it becomes possible only when the reasons of their origination are timely determined.