Law enforcement practice in countering organized forms of complicity in committing envi-ronmental crimes

Abstract

Based on the official statistical sources available from the Office of the Prosecutor General and the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, the group component of environmental crime has been analyzed for the period 2009-2022. The long-term criminological analysis made by the authors allowed identifying the specific characteristics of criminals in this category and finding out the indicators of group criminal activity, including as part of organized groups, as well as the types of the encroachment committed. The relevant relative indicators pertaining to the examined categories of crimes are calculated and illustrated in diagrams. By using relative criminological indicators, specifically the proportion of detected and convicted persons who committed environmental crimes as part of a group, and by comparing the results obtained with similar total crime indicators the authors ascertained that the value of the relevant indicator for environmental crimes is significantly higher - 21.2 % versus 11.5 % for total crime in terms of persons detected and 28.3 % versus 15.3 % in terms of persons convicted. It is found that the proportion of the group component of environmental crime and of conviction for environmental crimes is almost twice as high as that of total crime (1.84). The proportion of persons who committed environmental crimes as part of an organized group or a criminal organization amounted to 0.8% of total environmental criminals detected and is almost twice as high as the same indicator for total crime (0.45%). Illegal mining, sale, acquisition, transfer, sending, transportation, and processing of amber account for the largest share of convicts who committed a crime as part of a group (47.0 % in 2022), and this is explained by the crime commission method (the method of hydro-erosion using appropriate technical means). By calculating and comparing the proportion of persons who committed environmental criminal infractions in the structure of all persons who committed environmental criminal offenses with similar indicators of persons who committed the same as part of a group and also as part of an organized group or a criminal organization, the authors proved that there is a correlation between the level of public danger of environmental encroachments and the level of organization of the persons who commit them. It is noted that the statistical analysis made is justified, firstly, by the tasks of typologizing the persons who commit environmental crimes for scientific and practical purposes, and secondly, by explaining the determination of criminal behavior, and thirdly, by developing effective measures to combat the crimes referred to this category.