The probative function of public and private documents in the criminal types of documentary falsification

Abstract

The present text seeks to address the existence of documents as means of evidence and the criminal legal implications of implanting falsehoods in them, from an analysis of sources of law such as jurisprudence and doctrine and a normative review under a study of truth and authenticity as founding principles of the importance of a written document. From this, it is presented the definition of this means of proof in the current normative system and what are the elements of the same, as well as the distinction between one of private character and the one pronounced by a state entity. An analysis is also made of mendacity and artifice - whether in the veracity or authenticity - of the document, and it will be solved to the question of whether any kind of alteration to the truth leads to the commission of some type of punishable (act); or if on the contrary, there will be circumstances that are not of the tenor of the Colombian criminal justice. This allows us to conclude, at the end of the text, that not every deceit implanted in a paper leads to a crime of falsehood; but in the event of a lack of truth, whether material or ideological, and that this document has relevance in trafficking common ground of things, it will involve the penalties provided for in the Colombian Penal Code.