The chain of custody in criminal matters: legal and sociological conditions

Abstract

This article corresponds to a preliminary investigation on the chain of custody and evidence in criminal proceedings. The objective was to analyze the legal and sociological conditions that underpin the regulations that regulate the chain of custody and its operation. The development consisted in the revision of the concept of chain of custody, characteristics and importance. The chain of custody is the set of steps taken when a criminal investigation begins, to ensure that the evidence collected is not changed or destroyed so that the analysis carried out by forensics of the evidence is the same as that collected at the crime scene without any change. If the guarantee of due process is violated, such as the presumption of innocence, the doubt in favor of the defendant, and objectivity, decisions would be made that punish an innocent person or that the guilty plead innocent. This work is a topic of study of transcendental importance in Criminal Law with scientific arguments that led to proposals to the questions that were observed when analyzing the process of investigation and evidence of criminal acts. The discussion of the topic expanded on these arguments about the chain of custody, the sequence of which begins from the moment in which the vestiges, samples or evidence of a criminal act is fixed, lifted, analyzed and preserved and culminates with the appraisal of its verification at the time of the oral trial, which guarantees the authenticity and legitimacy of each of the evidentiary elements in the criminal process. The investigation methodology and the conclusions of this complex process of the chain of custody were added, but due to lack of specialized personnel and limitations of the judicial system, injustices are committed, "legally invisible facts" occurring that comply with the law, but in practice it is disrespected, which tends to benefit the offender and punish the innocent.