Summary

In the last few decades, increasing attention has been given to the particularities of criminal proceedings of minor-related cases. Observing the interests and rights of a child during criminal proceedings, including in questioning of a child, is important. The objective of the study introduced in the article was to provide an assessment on the practice of questioning the minor victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence in criminal proceedings in 2013–2014, and to determine how the questioning complies with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the guidelines on structured interrogation methods. The study concentrated on the distinctness of principles of child-friendly proceedings and the special treatment of a minor victim in criminal proceedings, the competence of the professionals in questioning minors, and the organisational aspects of the questionings.

In total, ten transcriptions of video interviews with minors were viewed. The questionings were carried out from 2011 to 2014. The average age of the children in the analysed cases was 10; the age varied from 5 to 17; and 5 of the children were boys and 5 were girls. The results of the study reveal that there are problems with implementing the structured questioning methods in practice and the quality of the questioning depends on the skills of the person carrying out the questioning. Therefore, it would be important to provide the persons conducting proceedings with constant individual feedback on their activities, mainly based on the guidelines for structured interrogation methods. For example, the investigators who already have experience in interviewing minors could pass on their knowledge and experience to less experienced colleagues in the course of covision, by both watching the video-recorded questionings and analysing the questions asked based in the transcription of the questioning.