Slovene criminal investigation: quo vadis?

Abstract

Although the first beginnings of Slovene criminal investigation precede the Second World War, when the first lectures were given at the Faculty of Law ill Ljubljana in the 1930's, and the Institute of Criminal Investigation was founded, criminal investigation as a discipline was later the subject of much less research, publishing and pedagogic attention in Slovenia than criminology, criminal law and related sciences. Only a few individuals undertook empirical research projects, there were not many theoretical works - mainly master's and doctoral theses - nor scientific and professional articles and handbooks. Oil the one hand, there was a lack of interest ill such research by users and, on the other, difficulties encountered in researching this area deterred researchers from tackling this topic. After Pecar's critical papers on the state of affairs in criminal investigation, published in 1969 and 1972, the Institute of Criminology in Ljubljana engaged a researcher, specialised in this area, who carried out some rare empirical and theoretical research projects. Since his departure from the Institute in 1990, only a few researchers from the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security and the Centre for Forensic Research have been concerned with this area. They have actually created and developed new subjects in undergraduate and postgraduate study programmes and published several research articles with new ideas concerning investigation of crimes, but real research activity in this field has still been lacking. Such a situation has a negative impact on the practice of detection and investigation of crimes, in which an insufficient effectiveness of the police and prosecution agencies has been noted. Recent years, however, have seen a slight improvement due to developments at the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security and more favourable attitudes demonstrated by the Ministry of the Interior and the leadership of the Police Department. Can we therefore hope to see better times coming for Slovene criminal investigation?