In the detection of criminal cases in China, it is not uncommon for witnesses to be unwilling to testify. From the point of view of obtaining evidence, witnesses are unwilling to testify, which is not conducive to finding out the facts or brings great obstacles to finding out the facts. Especially in some criminal cases, it is precisely because of the witness's "voice loss" that the judicial organs cannot finalize the case because of insufficient evidence, thus making the criminal suspect escape the due legal sanctions. The unwillingness of witnesses to testify is not only not conducive to cracking down on crimes in time, but also encourages criminals. Especially in today's democratic and legal system, the reluctance of witnesses to testify is also a discordant voice in building a harmonious society. The main reasons are that the legal provisions are imperfect, some organizations and individuals have weak legal concepts, the rights and obligations of witnesses are not unified, and witnesses lack strong security, economic security and social and historical reasons, resulting in few witnesses appearing in court to testify in criminal cases. The author thinks that in order to solve the problem of witness testifying, the rights, obligations and responsibilities of witness testifying must be determined by law, and a moral scale must be determined. Second, it is necessary to make clear and specific legal provisions on the security and economic claim of witnesses to solve the worries of witnesses when testifying. Third, it is necessary to clearly stipulate the legal responsibility of witnesses who are willing to cooperate with the public security organs to testify, and give the judicial organs the power to impose sanctions.
Keywords: witness testifies; Analysis of current situation; Legal countermeasures
In the detection of criminal cases, the criminals that the public security organs have to deal with are often extremely sinister or vicious criminals. It can be said that it is not easy to master their criminal evidence, which requires the broad masses of the people to bravely stand up and cooperate with our public security organs to crack down on criminals. In real life, some people clearly know who has done something illegal or immoral. When they face the investigation of relevant departments and the inquiry of victims, insiders are always unwilling to testify. In this regard, relevant legal experts and sociologists point out that the reluctance of witnesses to testify reflects, in a sense, the lack of courageous spirit in some people's hearts during the period of social transformation, and also highlights the necessity and urgency of strengthening the construction of witness protection system. As an unarmed citizen, the best choice is to grasp the criminal evidence of criminals and bravely cooperate with the public security organs to crack down on illegal and criminal activities.
At the beginning of the case. Com Huangshi News Network once reported that in July 2008 12 or so, a woman was caught stealing a bag in a large department store in Huangshi city. However, the stolen person was afraid to testify at the police station for fear of retaliation. A citizen at the scene also recognized that the woman had taken her bag, but did not dare to testify against the suspect in person. Ms. Wang, a store clerk, said that at noon yesterday 12, when she was having dinner and chatting with her colleagues, she heard someone calling her name and saying that her bag had been taken away. Looking back, a woman walked out of 10 meters with her yellow satchel on her back. She immediately shouted "Stop thief". The security guard rushed over and caught the woman. Ms. Wu, a salesperson, introduced that she saw a woman with thick powder on her face. She first stood in front of the counter and looked around, then took out the cosmetic mirror and applied it for a long time. After seeing a clerk leave the counter, the woman quickly picked up a wallet and left unhurriedly. She paused for a moment, then called someone. After the security alarm, the police of Shenyang Port Police Station took the woman away. Unexpectedly, Wang, the shop assistant, refused to testify that the woman had taken her bag. She told the reporter anxiously that she worked in a shopping mall and was afraid that the woman would take revenge on her. Ms. Qian, who was on the sidelines, also said that in February this year, the woman and a black and thin man went to her shop to steal. At that time, the black and thin man kept asking the salesman, but he never bought it. After the two left, the salesperson found that the employee warehouse was stolen. Watching the video, I found that the man diverted the attention of the sales staff, and the woman entered the employee warehouse and took the opportunity to steal the employee's mobile phone and bag. Subsequently, accompanied by a reporter, Ms. Qian went to the Shenyang Port Police Station to report the case, but she did not dare to confront the woman carrying the bag. She just glanced at the woman from a distance and finally left silently. Ms. Qian said that she was also afraid that the other party would retaliate against her store. The police at the Shenyang Port Police Station told the reporter that the woman could not be punished without a witness. He called on citizens to bravely testify against criminal suspects, thus effectively punishing criminals.
First, the significance of witness testimony in criminal cases
Witness testimony in criminal cases is the basic requirement of modern criminal case detection. The testimony of witnesses often becomes the key factor in solving crimes, which can effectively expose the criminal facts that criminals try to deceive. Only when witnesses are brave enough to cooperate, can the detection of criminal cases in China advance along a healthy and bright road, promote the detection of criminal cases, effectively curb the occurrence of criminal cases and make contributions to the construction of a harmonious socialist society. Only when witnesses testify, the evidence of the case can be well connected, and the facts can be clear and the evidence is indeed sufficient. First of all, witness testimony can reasonably eliminate the contradiction between facts and evidence. Secondly, the testimony of witnesses can effectively provide more reliable basis for the police to make correct judgments. Only when the police have full confidence in the facts can they make a decisive judgment on the case independently. The courage of witnesses to testify in criminal cases can effectively curb the arrogance of criminals, improve the work efficiency of public security organs and greatly save the funds for handling cases.
Second, the factors that witnesses are unwilling to testify in criminal cases.
There are both complicated social and historical reasons and subjective factors for witnesses' unwillingness to testify, which can be summarized in four aspects: traditional history and culture, current legislation, law enforcement and the quality of witnesses themselves.
China's traditional history and culture has many essences, but there are also some dross. Some people don't talk about principles, but blindly advocate the concepts of "harmony is the most important thing" and "more things are better than less things". When he clearly knew that something improper or even illegal was done by someone, or when he was at the scene and the relevant departments investigated and collected evidence from him, he was afraid of offending people, kept silent and even pretended not to know anything. Secondly, China's current legislation emphasizes the obligations of witnesses, but ignores the rights of witnesses. The obligations and rights of witnesses are not equal, and the legal rights of witnesses are not fully protected, which leads to some witnesses unwilling to testify. From the perspective of law enforcement, the protection measures for witnesses are not perfect. For example, whether criminal or civil cases are involved, witnesses need time and energy to testify. For ordinary citizens, testifying means taking risks and getting into trouble. Moreover, there is still no clear provision in the law to take relief or compensation measures for witnesses, which cannot relieve their worries. In the process of law enforcement, individual case handlers have improper working methods and untrue styles, which makes witnesses disgusted and unwilling to testify. In addition, the phenomenon that witnesses are unwilling to testify is for self-protection for many people, and people tend to avoid contradictions. Because some witnesses themselves lack a sense of justice and social responsibility, even if they have a certain sense of justice and social responsibility, they want to testify, but their psychological quality is not good, and they are worried that they will be criticized or even retaliated after testifying. This is also related to the ineffective crackdown on evil forces in some places.
(a) from the witness's own point of view, analyze the psychological factors of his unwillingness to testify:
1, to preserve our sanity.
Witnesses who have this kind of psychology generally hold a negative attitude towards life, have a weak legal concept and don't know that it is a citizen's obligation to testify. The ideas of "nothing to do with yourself, hanging high" and "more things and less things" are outstanding.
Step 2 be afraid
Safety is one of the levels of human psychological needs. Without danger, life and property can be protected from infringement, which is also a common psychological phenomenon of witnesses testifying. At present, social criminal activities are rampant, and criminals are evil and arrogant. In some cases, after the witness testified the facts of the crime, the criminal suspect and his associates retaliated wildly against the witness, and some even hurt the witness's family. However, the public security and judicial organs sometimes fail to protect witnesses well, resulting in serious illegal violations of the lives and property of some witnesses, and even some witnesses can not be dealt with promptly and fairly after retaliation. In this way, the person who has been testified will be disheartened and will not dare to testify again next time. It will also make other group owners who know this situation have a sense of fear and take a warning and will not testify in other cases. It is a common phenomenon that spiritual witnesses are afraid to testify because they are threatened or intimidated before testifying.