On the practical application of the provisions establishing liability for corruption crimes in official activities committed by officials of legal entities under public law

Abstract

The article explores the major criminological indicators that illustrate the practical application of criminal law provisions establishing liability for corruption crimes in official activities that are committed by officials of legal entities under public law. By analyzing the provisions of the notes to Articles 45 and 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, along with the features characterizing the perpetrators of crimes in the sphere of official activities, the author outlines the range of criminal offenses in the area under study. These offenses include, in particular, abuse of power or official position (Article 364 of the CC of Ukraine); acceptance of an offer or promise, or receipt of an undue benefit by an official (Article 368 of the CC of Ukraine), and unlawful enrichment (Articles 3681, 3682, 3685 of the CC of Ukraine). Based on official statistical sources (the Office of the Prosecutor General and the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine), the author conducted a long-term criminological analysis of the situation with the crimes under study and determined the absolute, average, and relative values in the period from 2016 to 2023, as well as the indicators reflecting the correlation between the number of recorded criminal offenses and the number of detected and convicted persons for each type of crime in this category. The calculated indicators revealed a dramatic gap between the number of recorded criminal offenses and the number of detected persons, as well as the number of detected and convicted persons. This discrepancy suggests that the criminal justice system has low efficiency in combating crimes of the studied category, with the real scale of these offenses, given their significant latency, far exceeding the officially recorded indicators. The study conducted by the author holds an independent value both for scientific purposes and for law enforcement activities and provides the relevant basis for information support in combating corruption crimes in official activities that are committed by officials of legal entities under public law; most importantly, it provides a clear understanding and assessment of the efficiency of the relevant criminal law provisions and serves as a prerequisite for developing the measures to improve the efficiency of criminal justice authorities in this area.