Unit III the work of an investigator Техt 1

I. Skim the following text and say who may be appointed to the post of an investigator in this country.

The State combats crime through its law-enforcement organs such as Investigative Department (together with Prosecutor’s Office, courts, Federal Security Service, Federal Drug Control Service and some others).

Quite a lot of graduates from our Law Academy work as investigators in the organs of the Investigative Department of Interior Affairs Ministry. The law defines a set of conditions about service for these institutions. Thus, the Russian nationals with higher legal education only can become investigators. Persons with current or previous criminal records cannot be accepted for service in the investigative authorities or institutions.

By statute, investigators cannot hold elected office, work for regional or local governments or engage in entrepreneurial activity. But they are permitted to teach and engage in research. In addition, investigators may not inform regional and local officials of their activity, except as required by the law.

Persons first appointed to a post of an investigator take an oath of office.

The Investigative Department encourages its investigators to enter training programmes that it provides to enhance their skills, acquaint them with new technologies and help develop esprit de corps.

Particular guarantees, measures of legal and social protection are established in view of complexity and danger of investigators’ work.

II. Read Text 2 and do exercises after it. Text 2 Part 1

Investigation means search. That’s why the duty of an investigator is to search for truth, for the offender, for witnesses, and for evidences. The investigator bases his conclusions concerning the guilt of an accused upon verification and assessment of the evidence. Evidence in a criminal act is facts. The investigator establishes the facts in the case from the testimony of witnesses, the injured parties, suspects, accused, the opinions of experts, exhibits, the records of the investigation and court proceedings and other documents.

After receiving the information that a crime has been committed, the investigator commences a preliminary investigation: he inspects the scene of the crime, subpoenas and questions witnesses, issues orders, makes searches and seizures and prepare documents. The criminal investigators have wide-ranging powers to conduct interrogations, searches and seizures and to detain suspects for up to forty-eight hours without a judicial order.

During the investigation of a criminal case, he has the right to demand that citizens should take part in examination and searches, and testify on the facts known to them. Courts may largely rely on the criminal investigators’ case files or dossiers as evidence of guilt. While the basic timeframe for preliminary investigations is two months, an investigator may request extensions, and there is no stated limit.

Investigators have a wide variety of techniques available in conducting research. However, the majority of cases are solved by the interrogation of suspects and the interviewing of witnesses, which takes time. Besides interrogations, investigators may rely on a network of informants they have cultivated over the years. Evidence collection and preservation can also help in identifying a potential suspect(s).

Part 2

In criminal investigations, once an investigator has suspects in mind, the next step is to produce evidence that will stand up in a court. The best way is to obtain a confession from the suspect. It must be done within procedural boundaries and without the threat of violence or promises outside their control.

Still then, physical forensic evidence in an investigation may provide leads to closing a case. Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to the legal system.

Finally, investigators may use public and private records to provide background information on a subject. They can search through files of fingerprint records. As well, investigators may explore through records of criminal arrests and convictions, photographs of persons arrested, and motor vehicle records. With a warrant, investigators can also seek through credit card records and bank statements, citizen registration information, short messages service, and phone conversations.

Investigators deal with grave crimes committed against the person, crimes against human rights and freedoms and a number of other cases. They investigate more than 100,000 criminal cases a year.

At the end of a preliminary investigation, the investigator must either present charges or drop them. The indictment is the culminating stage of the investigation in which the investigator sets forth the particulars of the crime and the evidence collected in the case and specifies the article of the criminal code covering the acts of the accused. Once investigators complete preliminary investigations, they turn the case files over to procurators and may no longer be involved in the cases.

III. Find in the texts and write out all the words with the suffixes –ness; –ence (–ance); -tion; –cy(–acy); –ship; –ive; –ible(–able); –ity (if there are any). What words are they derived from? Complete the chart. Follow the example.

Suffix	Part of speech	Word and its meaning	Initial form of the word	Way of formation
–ence (–ance)	noun	violence - насилие	violent	Adjective+ence=noun