Characteristics of the subject of official forgery: based on the analysis of law enforcement practice

Abstract

The article examines the views of various scholars on the definition of the subject of a criminal offense in general and the elements of forgery in particular. The author analyzes the report of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine for 2019-2022 on the commission of a criminal offense under Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The author examines, among other things, socio-demographic, socio­role, moral, psychological and criminal law features of the personality structure of a criminal committing forgery. An attempt is made to identify the main features inherent in the subject of this criminal offense. The main attention is paid to the construction of his criminological portrait and determination of the functional relevance of such information.
 In the study of the characteristic features inherent in the subject of criminal forgery, an important place is given to the personality structure of the offender who commits this crime. This structure is a set of his/her socially significant qualities that have developed in the process of various interactions with other people. The analysis of the characteristic features of such a person also involves the maximum consideration of psychological characteristics and biologically determined qualities, which in turn determine human behavior, including criminal behavior. Therefore, it should be taken into account that these qualities have a significant impact on criminal behavior. Thus, the subject of forgery is characterized by a system of signs, properties, qualities that define him/her as a person who has committed a criminal offense.
 The author provides a criminological and socio-psychological characterization of the subject of forgery, analyzes the demographic, moral and social characteristics of such a person, as well as his/ her anti-social criminal behavior, and provides a substantiation of the socio-psychological portrait of a criminal who commits a criminal offense under Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Such a person is also characterized by a certain system of moral and psychological beliefs, properties, attitudes, intellectual, emotional and volitional qualities. Given the above, the characterization of an official as part of this criminal offense has specific features that are determined by the peculiar official status of such a person and significantly distinguish it from the general characterization of the subject of the criminal offense.