Post-Criminal Behaviour Beginning and Its Influence on the Initial Stage of Investigative Situation of Grave and Especially Grave Crimes

Introduction. The expedient and ongoing development of the forensic science is explained by the various geopolitical, economic and social conditions of the progress taking place in the Russian Federation and our society, as well as by transformation of the phenomena, processes and events referring to the crime and combating thereof. Any criminal activity is inevitably followed by the post-criminal behaviour of the persons related to the event of crime and its investigation. It has been acknowledged that within four – five years period, on average, every fifth citizen of the Russian Federation encounters and acts in the criminal and post-criminal reality. The statistical data and specially elaborated author’s own analysis conducted in the empirical part of the research have revealed the mutual penetration and the existing latent regularities and patterns. The current state of combating the crime is characterised by the increase of grave and especially grave crimes, latency, post-criminal subsequence, recidivism and high rates of unsolved crimes. On the one hand, there take place the digitalization of crime methods and/or their replication from abroad, there emerge the new ways of crime concealment and counteracting the investigation thereof, and, on the other hand, there go on the systemic changes in the criminal law, criminal procedure legislation, which result in existing shortcomings and arising need of the law enforcement authorities for criminalistic support at the beginning of investigation. The above circumstances have determined the choice of the topic of the article, which is subordinate to the aim of studying the logical influence of the beginning of the post-criminal behaviour of the persons on the content of the initial investigative situations.

Materials and Methods. The longitudinal study was conducted using the systemic, situational and activity-based approaches. The program of the conducted research involved the scientific method of repeated observation over the criminal and post-criminal reality. While distinguishing the problem, a comparative analysis of the official statistical data for the last five years and scientific and thematic analysis of the forensic and specialised literature were carried out. To identify the influence of the post-criminal behaviour beginning on the initial situation, the mathematical methods of analysis of the obtained patterns and relationships were used based on the author's developed program of studying the criminal cases, along with the probability theory methods, modeling theory and a number of other methods.

Results. The article presents the results of the analytical work (carried out within the period of 2020-2024), formulates the conclusions and suggestions. The influence of the post-criminal behaviour beginning on the initial investigative situation of grave and especially grave crimes was revealed and proved, the previously established interrelation between the crime gravity and post-criminal counteraction to the investigation was confirmed, the features of the post-criminal behaviour of the certain participants related to the event of crime were studied, the influence of the criminal activity organisation degree on the content of the post-criminal counteraction, assistance or behavioural evidences was analysed.

Discussion and Conclusion. It was found that in the period of 2020–2024 the number of concealment methods of grave and especially grave crimes tends to increase among the subjects of crime. This was most prominently manifested in the cases of crimes committed by a group of persons, which led to determining the majority of the initial stages of investigative situations as unfavourable and conflict. The forensic knowledge acquired upon the research can be used not only by the forensic scientists for elaborating the certain methods of investigating the grave and especially grave crimes, but also by the investigators for assessing and investigating the initial stages of the investigative situations of such crimes. The initial investigative situation is a situation, when the investigation of grave or especially grave crimes begins, it represents an extrapolation of the contradictions between the qualitative criteria facilitating the investigation and quantitative combinations of the investigation counteraction or the behavioural evidences of the participants related to the event of crime. The post-criminal behaviour of the persons related to the event of crime is directly connected to the mechanism of committing the grave and especially grave crime, to the characteristics of the personality of a certain subject of crime.

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