СRIME ANALYSIS: PROBLEMS OF TERMINOLOGY

Abstract

The article provides a scientific review of the main modern scientific approaches to the definition of crime. The systematic and phenomenological foundations of crime research are analyzed. The opinion about the fragmentation of general theoretical criminological knowledge about crime and the need to synthesize their individual elements on complementary methodological grounds is argued. The definition of crime is proposed as an integral component of human relations, which accompanies society at all stages of its development and reflects the behavior of individual individuals, which other members of society perceive as criminal offenses. The specifics of the legal approach to crime as a collective concept – a set or even a system of criminal offenses – are considered. On the basis of this concept, crime is defined as a set of criminal offenses of one or more types, which have a mass character and are regularly repeated in a country or a separate region during a certain period. This approach is the result of criminological analysis of crime. Actually, criminological analysis is an approach, a component of a broader concept – «crime analysis». It is proven that the analysis can be forensic, which is based on the norms of criminal procedural legislation and is aimed at studying the patterns of criminal activity, its reflection in sources of information that serve as the basis for the development of means, techniques and methods of collecting, researching, evaluating and using evidence for the purpose investigation, trial and prevention of criminal offences. The article substantiates that crime is a global social problem that cannot be completely overcome. By preventing crime, one can only reduce its indicators and limit the impact on the development of society. The author claims that crime must be predicted and anticipated. The magnitude of the problems of crime prevention, the dynamism of the situation, the variety of processes and phenomena associated with the reproduction of crime and its manifestations in social life determine the urgency of complex forecasting of the development of the situation.