Problems of Forensic Sciences 2013 Vol. 93 (XCIII) 335-350
EVIDENCE EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR EXPERT OPINIONS PREPARED BY PSYCHOLOGISTS
Alicja CZEREDERECKA
Institute of Forensic Research, Kraków, Poland
Streszczenie
Expert opinion is admissible as evidence in court and is therefore subject to evaluation. The question that immediately follows, however, is that of how and to what extent a court can control and evaluate the information provided by experts, whose knowledge is, by its very nature, specialised. The law lays down only general, formal requirements for expert opinions (Art. 200 and Art. 201 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and art. 285 § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure) and, though methodological guidelines are given in a little more detail in the specialist legal literature, it would nevertheless appear essential to also consult the literature of the branches of learning the particular experts represent. In this way the specific nature of the data gathering, and of the grounds upon which the conclusions are drawn, can be taken into account. The aim of this article is to systematise the evaluation criteria for expert psychological opinions. It will first consider the American courts, where the evaluation criteria are distinguished by their orderliness and have a long tradition: the Frye standard of 1923, the Federal Rules on the Admissibility of Evidence of 1976 and the Daubert standard of 1993. American forensic psychology takes into consideration guidelines specific to the conditions of the experts’ work, which emphasise the specific nature of the interpersonal relationships involved and the ethical problems they entail: the Heilbrun model of 1992 and the Marlowe model of 1995. Polish court procedure does not yet possess such an homogenous system of evaluation and – considering the differences in legal systems and cultural conditioning – consideration is required in deciding which of the American experiences can be applied in Poland. The article then presents guidelines for the evaluation of expert evidence as they are found in the Polish legal literature (Tomaszewski, Widła, Wójcikiewicz), as well as ten psychological criteria formulated by the author in 2005 based on the methodological and ethical requirements obligatory in psychological research and on the guidelines found in the forensic psychology literature. These may serve as a starting point in the systematisation of expert psychological opinion in court and, therefore, be of use both to the agencies that request such opinions and to the experts who prepare them.
Słowa kluczowe
Psychology and law; Evidence evaluation in court; Psychological expert opinion.