Difficulties And Solutions In Collecting The Electronic Evidence During The Criminal Prosecution

Along with the rapid development and popularization of the modern information technologies,the digital evidence has been increasingly applied to the criminal prosecution.After the amendments on inspection regulation and criminal procedure law,the collection of digital evidence hasobvious characteristics such as finiteness,complementary,controllable,and secrecy.In the investigatory practice,the methods of collecting electronic evidence include obtaining electronic data,remote Internet inspection,and technical detection tools.In the collection procedures,investigatory personal should first prepare professional investigation tools;second,they need to pay attention on protecting the scene of the crime and conduct the investigation timely,with an aim to genuinely,completely and safely store the digital evidence;third,they should properly pack and transport these electronic devices;lastly,they should properly record the list.In the legislation,there is still a blank space in our laws on digital evidence such as the somewhat inconsistent standards on collecting evidence and the limited application clause of rules on admissibility of evidence.In collection methods,there are difficulties in legal search and seizure,incompleteness of information,non-standardized practice,lack of technical personnel,and violating human rights caused many problems.The reasons are possibly the lack of laws on digital evidence in legislation,vague collection rules,inadequately prepared ideology among different levels of investigating and prosecuting apparatus,the lack of technical personnel in the team construction,and the kind of ignorance of collecting a complete chain of digital evidence.Based on these difficulties,several solving strategies are proposed.First,an integrated multi-level legislative framework of digital evidence,a detailed practice rules on collecting digital evidence,and a clear integrated law supervision system need to be established.Second,the investigatory personal at the front should adopt correct attitudes,strengthen exchange schemes,and fully exploit the potential.Third,integrating resources and increasing the budgetary funding for equipment is necessary.Fourth,the problems in specific operation should be improved by standardizing methods,emphasizing records of the enquiry,making the rules on collection,judicial review and determination clear,and standardizing abstraction of digital evidence through keeping strategies on chains of evidence.