the court or change their statements can be a fear for themselves and their families,
because of the threats or expectations of the threats. A witness may appear to the court
but right before the beginning of the court hearing can change his/her mind to give a
testimony and leave complaining on not feeling well. The witness can be emotional
and worry while in the court that can affect his/her answers. It shall be understood that
attorneys from the defendant side will pose such questions that use different
manipulative techniques trying to change his/her statements or disclaim them.
The attorneys might use different techniques of public speech skills, interpersonal
communication and discussion skills, misleading a witness, working a witness for
sympathy, evoking compassion, remorse, shame, or looking for compromising
information. Thus, a witness, to some extent, needs psychological support regarding
the ability to counteract attorneys’ manipulations. (Hare, 2003).
A person who shows up to the court to provide statements might be in such a role
for the first time, meanwhile for the attorneys it is a routine working environment.
Attorney’s experience and qualifications can be different but in order to avoid long-
term sentence or reduce it, the defendant is going to look for very experienced in
defending criminal cases specialist.
Making decision by the judge in a criminal case is a very responsible matter since
a sentence can affect the further life of people involved in this case.
OSCE with the aim to improve social psychological conditions of witnesses in the
court offered to conduct a pilot project directed to involving volunteers to work with
the witnesses.
To carry out the research, Shevchenkivskiy district in the city of Lviv was chosen.
The project involves the participation of law and psychology teachers, third year law
student studying in legal science major (30 students).
The goal of the article is to analyze and justify psychological techniques for
volunteer preparation to work with witnesses; conduct analysis of psychological
characteristics of the volunteers who agreed to take part in the pilot project.
Research results. According to Article 65 of the Criminal Procedural Code of
Laws of Ukraine in the latest current version as of December 15, 2017 a witness is a
person who knows or might know the occurrence circumstances that need to be proved
during the criminal proceedings and that person is called in to give statements.
According to Article 352 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Laws of Ukraine
before questioning a witness, a court chairman inquiries the information about the
person and their relations of the witness and an accused person and a victim. Besides,
the court chairman inquires whether the witness received a note about his/her rights
and obligations, whether they are clear and if it is necessary to explain them to the
witness, he/she also makes sure whether the witness refuses the grounds stipulated in
the Code of Laws, refuses giving the statements, and warns the witness about criminal
- 382 -