Founded in 1973, the Judicial Investigation Department (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, ''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 Articl ...

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 Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

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

tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

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 compen ...

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 Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

* Division

Theft Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for som ...

s * 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 cr ...

s and Theft

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...

s Operational Support Unit * Section Juvenile *

Speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, 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 in value.) Many ...

Transit Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world * ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...

* 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

Crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

s *

Family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

and Against

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

* Receive Complaints *

Prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

and

Transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

s * 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 An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any d ...

, reconnaissance, and other examinations in respective cases that require them. Evacuate medical consultations

forensic Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...

s applied to the Agency. It is composed of several different sections: * Clinic

Medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

* Forensic Pathology *

Psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial p ...

and

Psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

* 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 nati ...

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 Districts of Costa Rica, district of the Flores (canton), Flores canton, in the Heredia Province, Heredia province of Costa Rica. Toponymy The town of San Joaquín de Flores is named after Joachim, Saint Joachim, Mary (mother 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 Forensic biology is the application of biology to associate a person(s), whether suspect or victim, to a location, an item (or collection of items), another person (victim or suspect, respectively). It can be utilized to further investigations for ...

Biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

Photo A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now crea ...

and

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) sy ...

* 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 a ...

Analytical chemistry Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...

Toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating e ...

* Planimetry

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 exerc ...

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”

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

s, Judge Lobo indicated that citizen journalists (those who “regularly contribute” to reporting or

public opinion Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. Etymology The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...

) 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