Founded in 1973, the Judicial Investigation Department ( Spanish, ''Organismo de Investigación Judicial'', OIJ) is a dependency of the Supreme Court of Justice of

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

. Since October 2015, its director has been Walter Espinoza Espinoza. The Judicial Investigation Department is a subsidiary body of the Criminal Courts of Public Prosecutions and serves as an auxiliary entity of the Criminal Courts and the Public Ministry, to guarantee the impartiality, honesty and objectivity of criminal investigations. Its

Organic Law An organic law is a law, or system of laws, that form the foundation of a government, corporation or any other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law for a sovereign state. By country France Under Article ...

stipulates that the OIJ will act on their own initiative–by denunciation or by order of competent authority in the investigation of crimes of public action–in the identification and preventive apprehension of the alleged offenders. It also aims to collect, secure and scientifically manage the evidence and other background information necessary for the investigation. Likewise, the OIJ will act in the crimes of private action by order of competent authority after receiving the claim or accusation of the affected party.

Structure

General Directorate

The General Directorate is responsible for directing and coordinating all the overall activities of the OIJ.

General Secretariat

The General Secretariat coordinates everything related to the budgetary system of transport and radio in addition to assigning the distribution of researchers in different sections.

Criminal Investigations Department

The Criminal Investigation Department is responsible for searching and collecting the necessary set of

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and evidence, as well as making the pertinent inquiries in the correct clarification of each case. It is composed of the following: * Crimes *

Fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

s * Economic and Financial Crimes * Narcotics *

Homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

s * Against property * Division Thefts * Division of

Assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

s and Theft vehicles Operational Support Unit * Section Juvenile *

Speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, good (economics), goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline i ...

in Transit * Various Crimes *

Kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

s Unit * Sexual Crimes * Family and Against Life * Receive Complaints * Prison and Transportations * Police Service Immediate Intervention (SPII) * Plans and Operations * Research Background Screeners * Armory * Museum Criminology, which is located in the building of the OIJ in the First Judicial Circuit of San Jose.

Department of Legal Medicine

Its primary function is to carry out the autopsies, reconnaissance, and other examinations in respective cases that require them. Evacuate medical consultations forensics applied to the Agency. It is composed of several different sections: * Clinic Medical * Forensic Pathology * Psychiatry and Psychology * Forensic Medicine Labor * Criminal Objectives Deposit * Criminal Museum * Canine Unit Account in addition to the Chair in Medicine of the University of Costa Rica as a teacher. And the Medico-Legal

Council A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

and believes that rules on medico-legal aspects that occurred in judicial proceedings when requested by the court. The Department of Forensic Medicine is at the Forensic Complex located in

San Joaquín de Flores San Joaquín is a district of the Flores canton, in the Heredia province of Costa Rica. Toponymy The town of San Joaquín de Flores is named after Saint Joachim, Mary's father. Geography San Joaquín has an area of km² and an elevation of ...

, Heredia.

Forensic Science Laboratory

The Forensic Science Laboratory, located at the Forensic Complex in

, Heredia, technically analyzes each of the evidence gathered during investigations, including the following: * Analysis and structure of dubious documents * Forensic biology * Biochemistry * Photo and video * Physical skills *

Ballistics Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially ranged weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets or the like; the science or art of designing and a ...

* Analytical chemistry * Toxicology * Transit *

Planimetry Planimetrics is the study of plane measurements, including angles, distances, and areas. History To measure planimetrics a planimeter or dot planimeter is used. This rather advanced analog technology is being taken over by simple image measurement ...

Criticism

The OIJ was criticized for its illegal surveillance of ''Diario Extra'' journalist Manuel Estrada, who had written an article critical of the OIJ. In a victory for

press freedom Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerci ...

and

citizen journalist Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, a ...

s, Judge Ernesto Jinesta Lobo of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court censured the OIJ for conducting illegal wiretaps to identify his sources for the article. In addition to “traditional” journalists, Judge Lobo indicated that citizen journalists (those who “regularly contribute” to reporting or public opinion) also deserve to be shielded from prosecutorial abuses of surveillance. Further criticism includes automatic dismissal of investigations related to intellectual property crimes up to 2011.

References

External links

Page of the Judiciary
{{Institutions of Costa Rica Institutions of Costa Rica Law of Costa Rica