18
dealing with unknown and known perpetrators. These taxonomies are not absolute for there will always be
criminal offenses that share the traits of both groups. From the criminal-tactical point of view, a separate
approach to these two groups of delicts represents an important way of finding strategies and tactics of
criminal investigation. Further in the text the quoted author emphasizes that detection of
ad rem should not
be separated from detection of
ad personam. The first task of any investigator is to detect the nature and
causes of a criminal offense, whereby detection of the perpetrator should not be disregarded
26
(Vodinelić,
1990: 28).
2.
IMPORTANCE OF THE CRIMINOLOGICAL DOCTRINE ON FIXATION OF
PROBATIVE INFORMATION
The importance of the criminological doctrine on fixation of probative information is
best illustrated in
Vodinelić‟s statement: “A criminologist stands and falls due to (dis)organization, (non)systematicity,
(in)consistence of maintaining the signal in their totality and detecting new information in constant
(dis)continuity.” Accordingly, criminological information is a dimension which entails limitation and even
elimination of uncertainty, instability, disorganization because it diminishes the entropy of system, “crime”,
with which it increases its regulation (Vodinelić, 1985). The criminological doctrine on fixation of probative
information represents a significant theoretical concept which interprets the process of obtaining the
probative character of criminological information
27
. There is no dilemma that that every criminological piece
of information is probative information
28
. Exact, properly directed, comprehensive investigation of the
criminal offense and the perpetrator is an integral part of detection, fixation, operational and procedural use
of information. Professor Vodinelić claims that criminological information values its significance,
informativeness, because a poorly planned amount of information does not mean anything. Furthermore,
Vodinelić points out that the relation between the message sender and receiver is the relation between the
epistemological subject and criminological object
29
. It is necessary first to gather information about a real
and feigned criminal offense (What happened?). Parallel (due to the inexorable passage of time and
information deficit
30
) it is necessary to obtain and process such information which determines and narrows
down the number of suspects and focuses on a particular suspect. Data become information only when they
are subjected to the psychological process of a criminologist (e.g. thinking in the framework of indication
doctrine). By this stage we are talking about operative information. In the end, information which are
criminal-legal in their nature should be obtained (fixated) in a proper way and in a written form in order to
have evidentiary significance. A criminal proceeding puts focus on the results of undertaking evidentiary and
trial actions, rather than operational-tactical actions, whereas criminalistics emphasizes the material aspect of
26
He needs the perpetrator, among other, in order to get complete information on the nature and cause of the criminal event, and also
for fixation of persons which will be processed, if the tactical analysis should indicate such need. The investigator must carefully and
conscientiously organize the detection and gathering of orientation-eliminative indications, which represent the circumstances of the
criminal event, and point to a specific person as its causer, i.e. a criminal offense perpetrator (probable, plausible or certain), as well
as those information which point to specific person(s), and to a criminal event which was unknown to the police agency earlier.
27
We will use Vodinelić‟s doctrine on criminal information and evidence. For further reading we refer to many papers in which
authors deal with this issue, cited in References.
28
For information to be probative it needs to meet at least two criteria: the first is material or quality criterion (usefulness, value and
other properties of its contents) and the second, formal one, criminological information must be based on appropriate, legally
determined and prescribed form.
29
In order for it to be regarded as information, the receiver needs to have an adequate store of signs, meanings, provisions. It is
always the case of complete or partial knowledge of new, but the receiver must be prepared for that. Actually, criminological
information represents change brought about by committing a criminal offense which is through criminological methods
detected and
interpreted and which directs the criminologist in the direction of detection, clarification and attestation of the criminal offense and
perpetrator. Criminological information, according to Professor Vodinelić, has its own storage carrier (signal) which determines its
nature and ways of approaching the same and the contents, i.e. meaning that points to the clarification of the criminal event
(Vodinelić, 1990). Criminalistics (criminalistics tactics) deals with their detection, interpretation and fixation, so do judicial
psychology and psychiatry, as well as other forensic sciences. It is necessary for this reason for criminological activity to be
implemented in accordance with the principle of speed and operability in order to timely detect and fixate criminal information, for
only such approach prevents their loss and destruction (Simonović & Pena, 2010).
30
It is necessary to point out that a criminal event as a real life phenomenon in not static, but a constant and fast disintegration and
disorganization. When the signals of a criminal event disappear, they begin to change, transform and disappear, regardless whether
they are personal or real information carriers. Material information carriers are destroyed by the passage of time, weather conditions
and the perpetrator trying to destroy traces, etc. Psychological carriers of information, i.e. memory, fades and changes over time.
Criminal event is characterized by entropy, system breakdown, loss of information. As a matter of fact, information deficit is legal
and universal. Information status of every criminal event significantly worsens with the passage of time. Therefore, irreversible
information deficit takes place (Vodinelić, 1985).