Criminal investigation in Irkutsk province: the peculiarities of specialization of police structures in the late 19th century

Abstract

In the context of modern transformation of Russian statehood, attention to the problems of law enforcement activities improvement has strengthened. The problems of specialization of police structures have become of a key importance. It’s no coincidence that during the recent decade, the process of formation and development of criminal investigation has been actively studied. The topicality of the problem determines the object, subject and purpose of the research. The research object is the process of formation and development of criminal investigation service in Irkutsk province, the research subject is the implementation of this process in the work of Irkutsk police. The purpose of the research is to define the sense, tendencies, patterns and contradictions of this process. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the analysis of the process of formation of criminal investigation service in Irkutsk province. The specificity of organization of criminals detection in Irkutsk province was determined by the specificity of local law enforcement activity. To the extent possible, local administration was trying to carry out criminal investigation in the region using the standard organization of the police work. But such an organization was in contradiction with the requirements imposed on it. Police were not able to organize proper criminal investigation due to the variety of tasks they faced. It turned out to be impossible to organize criminal investigation by independent units in Irkutsk province. Experience proved that the system of financial support for criminal investigation of that time didn’t allow creating special investigative units. This factor determined the appearance of “private detectives” under the jurisdiction of Irkutsk police. However, the insufficient financial support resulted in the poor quality of investigative activity which usually erupted into illegal activities. Remarkably, the necessity to create organizational structures of criminal investigation was much more urgent than in other regions of the country, which is proved by persistent actions of the province administration.