Audio-visual hearings of witnesses in preliminary investigations: only expanding the files or also enhancing the proceedings?

Project duration: 5/2023 - 4/2025

project description

On December 1, 1998, the Witness Protection Act (ZSchG) came into force. Thereby Section 58a of the Criminal Procedure Code created the possibility to record (video and audio) hearings of witnesses during the preliminary proceedings. While recordings of police or public prosecutor interrogations can be introduced into a main hearing according to the rules for reading out a record (Sec. 255a I Criminal Procedure Code), Sec. 255a II of the Criminal Procedure Code allows those of investigative judge interrogations under certain conditions to substitute another interrogation in the main hearing. These conditions have been changed three times in the past 25 years, each time resulting in an extended application.

Studies examining the audio-visual recordings of hearings of witnesses e.g., by analysing criminal files, date from the early 2000s, so they could only capture the original regulations and early practice. In addition, they only include procedures from selected public prosecutor's offices and primarily explore how many of these audio-visual recordings of hearings were carried out by the police, public prosecutors and/or investigating judges. However, since the recordings are principally intended to avoid detrimental multiple examination, their success cannot solely be seen in the fact that they exist, which might take place only "for the file". Therefore, the core question of the research project is:

Are recordings of audio-visual hearings used in the further course of criminal proceedings? If so, in what form and with what result?

In order to examine this question, files of criminal proceedings will be analysed. Therefore, all public prosecutor’s offices in Germany were asked to send their latest files of proceedings investigating sexual offenses ending in a final judgment, in which at least one audio-visual recording of the witness hearing took place.

Contact: Jutta Elz