Suchergebnisse

Child interviewing in legal cases is a multidisciplinary, multiprofessional topic that has been addressed as a following realisation, that accurate and eligible oral evidence, information or confession from children can only be obtained by a specific genre of interviews. Child development experts and researchers have advocated for specialised techniques for forensic child interviewing since the 80s and 90s, along with specialised police training and practice. In the European Union the last decade could rightly be called the decade of child-friendly justice. During these ten years several legal instruments were implemented about children's involvement in legal proceedings and their special needs and rights as a vulnerable group. This shift is reflected in national legislations, however, there is still room for improvement, especially in the everyday practices within the interrogation rooms.

This article examines the rights of South African prisoners to rehabilitation in light of the entitlement to rehabilitation contained in the Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 and the White Paper on Corrections, and thus enshrined in statute. The author contends that prison conditions play a significant role in the failure of the South African government to implement successful rehabilitative programmes. The article considers the potential recourse available to South African prisoners to judicially enforce the South African government's obligation with regard to effective rehabilitation programmes.

DNA profiling has become one of the most powerful forensic techniques that is used in criminal investigations to identify suspects. Moreover, scientific DNA evidence has become an important component in criminal trials. The interpretation of DNA evidence involves many statistical and probabilistic aspects, which have been the subject of fierce debates over past years. Many controversies are rooted in the differences between the so‐called Likelihood Ratio approach to evidence interpretation and other methods. However, though interesting for the statistician and probability theorist, these discussions are obstructive for legal proceedings. Fortunately, many issues have by now been settled, but the ever‐expanding possibilities keep on raising new discussion topics. This paper provides a brief overview of the statistical discussion, and addresses some of the most interesting issues in more detail.