Criminal Characteristics Research Articles

Juvenile Offenders: Reasons and Characteristics of Criminal Behavior

The article examines the phenomenon of “juvenile delinquency”, assesses its actual state and establishes the tendencies of its manifestations. Juvenile delinquency in Ukraine as a part of crime in a broad sense arises and develops under the influence of certain determinants. The study of the causes and conditions of juvenile delinquency remains relevant today, which indicates the special danger of this kind of crime for the development of society. The purpose of the article is to study the state of the problem in Ukraine and the experience of other countries in minimising the criminal behaviour of minors in the process of property and non-property relations. The leading approach that was used when writing the article is the comparison and analysis of modern materials on the problems of criminal behaviour of criminals who have not reached the age of majority. As a result, it was possible to identify the social characteristics of juvenile criminals and the reasons for their criminal behaviour. Considerable attention is paid to the factors influencing the commission of crimes: a dysfunctional family, shortcomings of the educational process, the problem of alcohol and drug use by minors. In addition, some directions for the prevention of juvenile delinquency were developed. The applied value is the ability to change legislation in terms of work and correction of minor criminals’ behaviour.

Evaluation of the Sociodemographic, Clinical and Criminal Characteristics of the Individuals with Probation due to Substance Use

Evaluation of the Sociodemographic, Clinical and Criminal Characteristics of the Individuals with Probation due to Substance Use

Features of the criminalistic characteristics of economic transnational crimes committed with the use of modern computer technologies

The article discusses the concepts and structure of the forensic characteristics of economic transnational crimes committed using modern computer technologies. It is noted that with the help of forensic characteristics in the investigation of transnational crimes, it is possible to: develop effective methods of investigation; construction of programs, versions and investigation algorithm; determination of directions and forms of interaction between the competent authorities of the interested states during the investigation; drawing up a complete and clear request for international legal assistance, taking into account all the characteristics of crimes of a certain category. The structural elements of the forensic characteristics of economic, transnational crimes include: the subject and setting of the crime, the personality (persons) of the criminal.
 There are two groups of objects of criminal encroachment: the main (referred to the category of object-related economic crimes); subordinates (referred to as the subjects of crimes in the field of the use of computer technology). Therefore, the subjects of economic transnational crimes committed with the use of modern computer technologies include: computer information; documents for the transfer of funds; various means of access to bank accounts, etc. The material carriers of such items of this category of crimes are: payment order, bank check, plastic payment card of any kind, identification card.
 It is noted that the peculiarities of the situation of economic transnational crimes committed with the use of modern computer technology, it is appropriate to consider the scheme: material, technical, spatial, temporal and socio-psychological circumstances of the crime.
 It is stated that crimes of this category are usually committed by persons who have a high intellectual and professional level. There are three groups of people who commit economic transnational crimes using computer technology. However, in a more detailed consideration of the characteristics of persons who committed crimes of this category, it is proposed to study them according to the scheme: 1) general features of the offender who committed economic transnational crime, using computer technology and 2) crimes, taking into account the distribution of roles in an organized criminal group.
 Given that the forensic characterization of transnational economic crimes committed with the use of modern computer technology is somewhat complex, it requires in-depth theoretical research in various scientific categories - legal, economic, informational and international.

Актуальные вопросы общественной опасности личности наркопреступника, обусловленной наркотической зависимостью

The category “public danger of a criminal” is considered. Based on the analysis of diverse views on this category and law enforcement practice, criminological and criminal law criteria for the public danger of a drug criminal with drug addiction are presented. Particular attention is paid to the psychobiological criteria of the social danger of a criminal addicted to narcotic drugs. The study of the category “public danger of a criminal” was the basis for determining the author's idea of the essence of the public danger of a drug criminal caused by their drug addiction. The article provides data from official statistics on the situation with drugs in the Russian Federation. The importance of analyzing the public danger of a criminal is noted: the correct interpretation of this category provides for the effectiveness of criminal law norms, the development of special preventive measures, and the shaping of modern criminal law views. Based on the materials of criminal cases, the characteristics of persons committing crimes related to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances trafficking were analyzed. The general criminological and criminal law characteristics of drug criminals include: they are 14 to 35 years old; they are largely single men with no permanent source of income; the main motive for primary drug use is curiosity, which is satisfied in their acquaintances' apartments or in drug squats, and the source of the acquisition of drugs is unknown persons; the recidivism rate is high. Particular attention is paid to the psychobiological characteristics of the public danger of a criminal: current research proves the existence of a relationship between drug addiction and criminal behavior. The author notes that the content of the public danger of a person who commits a crime in the field of illegal drug trafficking and has drug addiction is expressed in the class of the danger of drugs and psychotropic substances a person uses and the danger of committed crimes. There are three classes of the danger of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; the basis for differentiation is the severity of the prohibition for their circulation and the degree of their harmful effects on public health. The hazard class of narcotic drugs corresponds to the Lists approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 681 of 30 June 1998. Crimes in the sphere of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances illicit trafficking are differentiated into three groups: increased, average, and basic public danger; the ranking criterion is various factors, including the focus on sales, the presence of a special subject. The author points out that the use of the described model of a drug criminal's public danger caused by drug addiction will positively affect the development of specific preventive measures and the implementation of the principle of punishment individualization.

СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ АСПЕКТЫ МЕТОДОЛОГИИ ПРОВЕДЕНИЯ ПРИКЛАДНОГО КРИМИНОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ

Criminology is a theoretical legal science aimed at solving the problems of combating crime. It studies crime and its varieties, personal characteristics of criminals and causes of their criminal behavior in order to find the best ways, means, and specific measures to prevent crime, both in general and in each individual case. This article considers the most important methodological issues of criminological research. The concept of criminological research and the methods by which it is carried out are discussed. The methodological shortcomings (such as too short time span given for analyzing crime rates or certain types of crime) and the common mistakes made by young researchers during criminological research are identified. The need to apply new approaches and to more widely use the existing modern methods from other fields of science is noted. Special attention is given to the added value of criminological research in investigating and preventing digital crime. It is concluded that law-enforcement officials should develop a criminological thinking to make full use of criminological research in their efforts to curb criminality.

Криминалистическая характеристика женской преступности как основа формирования методики расследования

The analysis of women’s crime as an independent type of criminal activity with specific criminalistic properties and features that allow them to talk about the need to form a private investigation methodology. It is revealed that quantitative indicators of the considered type of crime have an unfavorable trend and are characterized by an increase in the share of criminal acts committed by women in the overall structure of crime. The structure of the criminalistic characteristics of female crime is presented, the elements of key importance for the investigation process are identified. The features of the personality of women who commit crimes are considered, their typology is given, taking into account the most important signs for the production of investigative actions.

Features of criminalistic characteristics of frauds committed using information technology

Features of criminalistic characteristics of frauds committed using information technology

Preliminary Stages of Investigation of Smuggling of Weapons of Mass Destruction

The article presents the criminalistic characteristics of weapons of mass destruction, as well as their components, objects and substances from which they can be made, focuses on the high level of public danger that weapons of mass destruction carry, especially in connection with the activation of extremist and terrorist groups. The paper considers and summarizes the complex of investigative and operational measures that the investigative body is obliged to carry out at the preliminary stage of the investigation of the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction, as well as materials and equipment that can be used in its creation, provides a description of the main (typical) investigative situations in the commission of this crime. The author comes to the conclusion that only with the close cooperation of all law enforcement agencies, the crimes under investigation on the territory of Russia can be solved as soon as possible, and the conclusion is also made about the possible involvement of unfriendly states, criminal communities and terrorist organizations in the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction.

On the issue of criminalistic characteristics of crimes, related to the illegal production and (or) turnover of ethanol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products

On the issue of criminalistic characteristics of crimes, related to the illegal production and (or) turnover of ethanol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products

Criminalistic characteristics of fraud in the field of shared-equity construction

В статье рассматривается криминалистическая характеристика мошенничеств, совершаемых в сфере долевого строительства. Проанализированы подходы к понятию «криминалистическая характеристика», рассмотрены элементы криминалистической характеристики преступлений указанной категории.

Criminal characteristic of energy security

Criminal characteristic of energy security

Социально-психологические характеристики осужденных, совершивших насильственные и корыстно-насильственные преступления

The problem of studying the socio-psychological characteristics of criminals who have committed violent and self-serving violent crimes is extremely relevant. This is due to its insufficient study, the high prevalence of convicts of this category in the population of convicts, the ability to understand the causes and origins of their criminal behavior. The aim of the research is to study the sociopsychological characteristics of convicts who have committed violent and self-serving violent crimes. According to the results obtained, the acceptance of responsibility for the committed crime is associated with the age of the offender (young convicts are more likely to attribute the blame for the committed criminal act to external circumstances). First-time convicts tend to deny the need for social support and show less desire for social contacts; their perception of life goals is less conscious, life is less meaningful compared to repeat offenders. The greater orientation of repeat offenders to social interaction and the perception of their own life as meaningful are considered as associated with the conscious acceptance of criminal values and the commission of criminal acts. The features of the relations of convicts in the parental family are related to the parameters of their further life: constructive employment at the time of detention, the level of education, the available family status, the severity of the crime committed.

ON APPROACHES TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF A FORENSIC MODEL OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY IN THE FIELD OF ILLICIT DRUG TRAFFICKING COMMITTED USING INFORMATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

The article examines the features of crimes in the field of illicit drug trafficking committed using information and telecommunications networks. The necessity of modification or development of new methodological recommendations for the investigation of crimes of this type is justified. A comparative analysis of various approaches to the definition of the concept of criminalistic characteristics of crimes and to the designation of its place in the structure of private forensic techniques is carried out. The arguments for showing special attention to the study of the set of structural elements designated by the phrase criminalistic characteristics of crimes are given. The criminalistic model of these crimes is considered. An attempt is being made to identify elements of a forensic model of crimes in the field of illicit drug trafficking committed using information and telecommunications networks. The content of the structural elements of the criminalistic model of crimes considered in the article is revealed.

Irish Republicanism and the Colonial Australian Bushranger Narrative

This article examines a range of colonial Australian Irish bushranger narratives in terms of their investments in revolutionary republicanism, arguing that these become increasingly contested and compromised over time. Beginning with the anonymously published novel Rebel Convicts (1858), it looks at how the fate of transported Irish revolutionaries is imagined in relation to colonial settlement and the convict system. It then turns to Ned Kelly’s Jerilderie Letter (c. 1879), highlighting Kelly’s rhetoric of resistance and mapping his affinities with Irish American republicanism. John Boyle O’Reilly was a Fenian activist, transported to Western Australia in 1867. His novel Moondyne (1878, 1879), rather than unleashing an Irish revolutionary political agenda, is based instead on an English-Catholic bushranger, and its interest in republicanism is in any case displaced from its Australian setting. Ned Kelly’s execution in 1880 gave rise to a new wave of popular narratives, including James Skipp Borlase’s The Iron-Clad Bushranger (1881), which fictionalises Kelly’s career – embroiling him in Irish Fenian plots – and recasts his political affiliations as criminal characteristics. Rolf Boldrewood’s Robbery Under Arms (1882–3) was also published in the wake of the Kelly saga but is notable for its political conservatism, stripping its Irish-Catholic bushrangers of their revolutionary potential to better serve the interests of a powerful pastoral elite. This conservatism is both challenged and magnified in Rosa Praed’s Outlaw and Lawmaker (1893), which celebrates the career of John Boyle O’Reilly while also re-directing his political radicalism into romance. The article concludes that the revolutionary figure of the Irish bushranger is gradually divorced from any radical agency and relegated to a remote chapter of colonial Australia’s history.

White-Collar Crime: Contemporary View

The article touches upon the problem of white collar criminality and presents a contemporary view of the phenomenon. The concept of white-collar crime, first introduced by Edwin H. Sutherland in 1939, immediately became the driving force behind the discussion undertaken by criminologists and sociologists of that time. Since then, many studies have been conducted in order to answer the question about who actually is a “white collar” – why do respectable, well-situated individuals decide to enter the path of crime? The author contrasts two types of definitions – the subjective white-collar crime definition developed in Anglo-Saxon culture and objective definition of economic crime functioning in Europe. It is significant that the crime of white collars has never really been systematized in the Polish legal system (and most of European legal systems), in contrast to economic types of crime.The author compares recent literature, presents characteristics of white-collar criminals and comes to the conclusion that in this specific group of criminals the ties between the perpetrator and the community in which they live are very weak. Finally, the article touches on a problem of possible beneficial consequences of attempting to investigate the scale of crimes committed by white collars.

Criminal characteristics of sexual violence committed by a group of persons against a minor

Summary. The process of successfully investigating crimes against sexual freedom and sexual integrity depends directly on how correctly and clearly the forensic characterization of the criminal offense has been established. In cases where a criminal offense is committed by a group of persons, as well as against a minor, during the investigation, investigators have many

Criminal Law Characteristics of an Organized Group

The paper examines the content of the organized criminal group characteristics provided for under the law. The criminal activity of a stable association of persons poses an increased public danger. The identification of such facts and their investigation is fraught with significant difficulties that arise also due to the evaluative nature of the concept of "organized group". Therefore, its essence is analyzed not only on the basis of theoretical sources, but also in the context of judicial practice. The author compares and generalizes the signs listed in the relevant decisions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and in court decisions on specific criminal cases. A correct understanding of the organized group characteristics is necessary for the competent qualification of crimes committed by its members, and the successful proof of their fault. The author summarizes that the sustainability of complicity is based on two complementary aspects. The first provides for a close, relatively long-term relationship between members of the group united by criminal motivation and goals (which ensures the stability of its main composition), as well as the recognition by ordinary participants of the decisions of their leader or the leading core of the group or decisions jointly made by the group as binding. The second aspect of sustainability provides for the implementation of effective criminal activity through the advance development of its plan and a clear distribution of role functions among the group members, ensuring the consistency of their actions, and the implementation of other measures necessary for the successful achievement of the intended goals. In cases where the conspiracy of the members of the group occurred immediately before the commission of the crime or took place in advance, but there was no close relationship and careful joint preparation for it we deal with a group of persons created by prior conspiracy due to the lack of stability of such an association.

Criminal law characteristic of certain restrictive measures

Domestic criminal law is being in constant dynamics, so it means that the norms of the current legislation are being improved, new, previously unknown, criminal-legal categories are being introduced, recommendations of in¬ternational institutions are taken into account, etc. Not an exception in this process is chapter XIII-1 of the General part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which regulates restrictive measures (these provisions came into force on January 11, 2019). From the moment of the regulation of restrictive measures in the Criminal Code of Ukraine, they have acquired the status of criminal-legal measures. Restrictive measures have a specific purpose - to protect the victim from a person who has committed a socially dangerous act, to protect against committing a socially danger¬ous act in relation to the victim in the future, to minimize the interaction between the person, who is in a dangerous state, and the victim, if such has the significant risks.This scientific article analyzes the conditions of application of restrictive measures in criminal law, in particular, it is determined that the concept of «crime related to domestic violence» is broader than the concept of «domestic violence» in Article 126-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and can be used not only in the commission of this crime, but also in other socially dangerous acts that have signs of domestic violence; some considerations regarding the improvement of the grounds for the application of restrictive measures are highlighted; the correlation between the requirements of international acts and current provisions on restrictive measures is considered.A detailed analysis of the types of restrictive measures that are in the Criminal Code of Ukraine was made. The need for some legislative changes and additions is argued, this concerns the wording of the names of types of restric¬tive measures; new concepts that should be enshrined at the legislative level; meaningful content of such varieties.
 The conclusion was made that the regulation of restrictive measures in the Criminal Code of Ukraine is a positive step, but due to the novelty of this legal category there is a need for their partial editing and changes.

Circumstances to Be Clarified under the Investigation of Interference into Law Enforcement Officer’s Activity

The author has substantiated the need to establish the circumstances to be clarified and has determined their significance during the investigation. It has been emphasized that the circumstances to be clarified include the circumstances to be proved in criminal proceedings, criminal and forensic characteristics of a criminal offense.
 In order to determine the circumstances to be clarified during the investigation of interference in the activities of a law enforcement officer, the author has studied the circumstances to be clarified within the group of criminal offenses related to obstruction of the activities of a law enforcement officer, as well as during the investigation of interference in the activities of a forensic expert. Taking into account the specified scientific provisions, the author has defined a detailed list of circumstances to be clarified during the investigation of interference in the activities of a law enforcement officer.
 It has been established that the circumstances to be clarified during the interference in the activities of a law enforcement officer include:
 1) circumstances related to the criminal offense, namely: time, place, situation and traces of a criminal offense, methods of its commission (preparation, direct commission and concealment), tools and means used during the interference, the scope of procedural costs; circumstances that are the basis for ceasing criminal proceedings; the reasons and conditions that contributed to the commission of a criminal offense;
 2) circumstances related to the identity of the victim, including: socio-demographic characteristics of the victim, place of work, position held; official and functional responsibilities, the victim’s belonging to a law enforcement agency during the commission of a criminal offense against him; the type and scope of damage caused to the victim;
 3) circumstances related to the identity of the offender, namely: socio-demographic data of the offender, physiological and psychological condition, gender, citizenship, financial status, place of work, the record of criminal conviction and the facts of bringing to administrative liability; the presence of dependent disabled people; the presence of guilt in the form of direct intent, the purpose of the action; circumstances that aggravate or mitigate the punishment of the offender are grounds for releasing from criminal liability or punishment that exclude criminal liability; presence of accomplices.

Uncovering Abnormal Behavior Patterns from Mobility Trajectories.

Using personal trajectory information to grasp the spatiotemporal laws of dangerous activities to curb the occurrence of criminal acts is a new opportunity and method for security prevention and control. This paper proposes a novel method to discover abnormal behaviors and judge abnormal behavior patterns using mobility trajectory data. Abnormal behavior trajectory refers to the behavior trajectory whose temporal and spatial characteristics are different from normal behavior, and it is an important clue to discover dangerous behavior. Abnormal patterns are the behavior patterns summarized based on the regular characteristics of criminals’ activities, including wandering, scouting, random walk, and trailing. This paper examines the abnormal behavior patterns based on mobility trajectories. A Long Short-Term Memory Network (LSTM)-based method is used to extract personal trajectory features, and the K-means clustering method is applied to extract abnormal trajectories from the trajectory dataset. Based on the characteristics of different abnormal behaviors, the spatio-temporal feature matching method is used to identify the abnormal patterns based on the filtered abnormal trajectories. Experimental results showed that the trajectory-based abnormal behavior discovery method can realize a rapid discovery of abnormal trajectories and effective judgment of abnormal behavior patterns.