In the Gallery Grad at the Maribor Regional Museum, an exhibition called Corpus Delicti opened on Tuesday 19 August 2008. The exhibition will remain open until 16 September 2008 - you are welcome to come have a look!
On behalf of the Maribor Regional Museum, visitors were welcomed by the director Mirjana Koren. Marjan Toš from Maribor Regional Museum, co-author and curator of the exposition, talked about the thematic exhibition. The author Biserka Debeljak, curator from the Slovenian Police Museum, stressed the importance of showing criminal records to the general public. In the official part of the exhibition opening, Mirko Ploj, assistant to the director of the Police directorate Maribor, gave a speech.
The fourth exhibition of this year aims to show the activities of the Slovenian police and criminology section to the general public in Maribor. The mission of the exhibition is not only documentary and informative, but also to contribute to prevention and greater safety of people, and last but not least to promote the police. The material presented at the exhibition is extracted from criminal offences which, after the judgements became final, were included in the department of criminology of the museum. We can see examples from the department's collection of such criminal acts as homicide and sexual offences, offences against property and illegal drugs which took place in Slovenia. We also introduce important forensics tasks of experts who find the material evidence necessary for judgment.
The beginnings of Slovenian Police Museum reach back to 1920. The museum collects material on criminology in Slovenia and records from the Slovenian department of criminology, execution of criminal sanctions and development of the internal affairs authority. Previously, the museum of criminology was originally housed in the military quarters in Šempeter, then in the paediatrics hospital. Later it changed locations and in 1970 moved into the premises of the former vocational school for policemen in Tacen, where it operated for about 30 years. In 2001, it was temporarily closed due to a lack of space at the police academy and the material was archived. The museum was opened to the public again in 2006.
The museum is intended for the general public and among other things is also an important teaching resource showing the history of Slovenian criminology, as well as part of the cultural heritage. In addition, it is intended for experts. It is also an important facility for students in consolidating such subjects as criminology, criminal law, criminal procedure acts, the Enforcement of Penal Sentences Act and learning about the history of the internal affairs authority as the predecessor of the present security system.
The museum is an excellent source of technical material - above all for law students, students of medicine, ethnology, social and philosophical sciences and social workers, defectologists and of course candidates for the police. However, it is also interesting for the general public because visitors can learn about the dangers in everyday life and how to react when facing a criminal offence or how to learn preventive and safer behaviour. With the motto "Let's try to prevent crime together!", the Slovenian Police Museum strives to increase awareness of safety as a value which has to be fought and cared for.
Preventive behaviour can significantly lessen the possibility of becoming a crime victim. Crime prevention is undoubtedly carried out in cooperation with the police, and therefore it is good to know something about police activities, because only in this way can we establish a partnership in providing safety.
In addition to policemen in uniform coming to the crime scene to protect the scene and collect other data, the activities of criminologists and experts from the Centre for Forensic Research at the General Police Directorate are also important in discovering, researching and establishing criminal acts.