Mykytas I. PRE-TRIAL REPORT: CONCEPT, CONTENT, MEANING

Abstract

Formation of the civil society and the development of Ukraine as a legal, democratic, social state are associated with the large-scale legal reform, comprehensive strengthening of the rule of law, protection of the constitutional rights and freedoms and the legitimate interests of a person. Ensuring public safety, law and order is one of the most important factors in the development of Ukrainian society. Places of deprivation of liberty do not provide for the repeated crime preven-tion, because any person in isolation is characterized by the significant negative con-sequences. In accordance with the Council of Europe Rules on Probation, in the de-veloped countries the probation may perform the following functions: pre-trial re-port, community works, supervision, work with a convicts’ families, electronic moni-toring, assistance in social adaptation. The purpose of the article is to analyze the pre-trial report as one of the func-tions of the Probation Service, as well as certain problematic issues of its introduction into the criminal-procedural practice in Ukraine. The pre-trial report should be based on the reliable information. International standards envisage the expediency of the provision of the objective and unbiased information to the court by the specially created bodies. They should characterize the accused person. The pre-trial report should contain not only the information charac-terizes the accused person, but should also contain the proposal of the court decision on the measure of his/her punishment. The pre-trial report is made during the trial, if the accused person committed the crime, whose lower limit of sanction does not exceed five years of imprisonment. The pre-trial report concerning the juvenile offend-ers (14–18 years old) is made regardless of the gravity of the committed offenses. The authorized body on probation examines the various spheres of life and activities of the accused person and prepares the pre-trial report, which should include: the sociopsychological characteristic of the accused person; assessment of the re-peated crimine risk; conclusion about the possibility of correction without restriction of freedom or imprisonment for a certain period. The court is not obliged to agree with the conclusions of the authorized body on probation. After all, the pre-trial report can not be used as proof of guilt in the criminal proceedings.