On Some Problems Of Character Evidence Of Criminal Defendants

Character evidence is one of the controversial issues in evidence law for a long time,especially in common law system.There are mature and perfect systematic rules of character evidence in American law.The core value of character evidence lies in balancing the protection of the defendant's rights and the individualization of punishment.No matter in our country's legislation or judicial practice,there are no systematic and perfect provisions on character evidence,but scattered in the provisions of the department law,such as recidivist system,social investigation system,etc.Although there are some essential defects in character evidence,the relevance in most cases cannot be denied,and it can be made up by other ways.The judicial practice at home and abroad has proved the value of character evidence in criminal proceedings.However,the gap in legislation of character evidence in China is obviously not suitable for the development of the rule of law and the reform of the criminal procedure system,and the criminal legislation in China should create conditions for its application.This paper will learn from the British and American Evidence Law on character evidence,and from the perspective of the use of criminal procedural evidence to explore the application of defendant's character evidence in China.Although there are significant differences between the common law system and China's litigation system and litigation mode,we can still explore the specific character evidence rules applicable to China's legal system on the basis of reference,combined with the concept of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.By combing the mature theories of the common law system and the cases that have important influence on the judicial circle of our country,this paper compares the existing legislation and judicature of the common law system with the judicial practice of our country,and focuses on the application of the case evidence in the practice of our country by reading the monographs and papers at home and abroad.Firstly,this paper elaborates the relevant concepts of character evidence,discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the defendant's character evidence,and discusses the problems that should be paid attention to when using the defendant's character evidence in China.Secondly,taking the juvenile social investigation report system as the breakthrough point,this paper exploresthe collection process of the character evidence of the criminal defendants,and discusses how to improve the character investigation system applicable to all criminal cases in combination with the shortcomings of the social investigation system in China's practice and the differences with the character evidence.The creative part of this paper is to sort out the character evidence prohibition rules and the exceptions of the character evidence prohibition rules,and finally discuss the application of the defendant's character evidence in the process of criminal proceedings in the light of the classic judicial cases that have been adjudicated in China.