The means of proof in criminal proceedings.

The forensic social work and the testimonial evidence

Abstract

Introduction: This paper aims to analyze testimonial evidence as a means of obtaining evidence, with special attention to its consideration and consequent weight in the recognition of justice. 

Objectives: It was our objective to critically appreciate the role of the social worker as a witness, seeking to analyze the jurisprudence that evidences the role of this professional as an intervener in the production of evidence in judgment, resulting from what is his professionality. 

Methods: We use the documentary legal database of the Institute of Financial Management and Justice Equipment (IGFEJ) and limited our search to keywords such as “social worker” and “witness”, having analyzed, for this purpose, thirteen judicial judgments. 

Results: The judgments in which the social worker presented himself as an intervener in the production of testimonial evidence, in the context of those who are his functions, show that there is a judicial decision that was based, particularly, on the testimonial evidence of the social worker produced on trial for final decision making. 

Conclusions: We concluded that the testimonies of social workers are valued by the courts in those cases where they are involved as a professional whose action is governed by the accumulation of experience and by the reflexive posture of the contexts in which they intervene, however the evidential strength of the testimony of this professional is always fixed freely by the court.