Crimes' Criminalistics Characteristic
Date: October 15, 2003Source: Computer Crime Research Center
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The state banking system, which is connected with accumulation, distribution and usage of governmental and private funds, is very attractive for criminals and organized criminal groups. Many various financial swindles are committed now in the given system, more often – in the process of different operations. The international payment systems are widely used.
High rate of criminalization of the banking system (in this sphere almost 3.1 thousand crimes are revealed during 2002) cause especial concern to the law enforcement agencies. According to Ukraine National Bank, almost every third Ukrainian bank is problematic for today. The banking system has turned into central link of technological chain of laundering funds, which were obtained in a criminal way. Three hundred and fifty-seven bank officials including 54 managers of banking establishments are made answerable for committing mercenary crimes directly in the banks.
Crimes, which are committed in the banking system or by using it, can be referred to the most dangerous financial offences because their negative influence is reflected not only on the activity of the bank itself but also on other subjects of the state economical and financial system as a whole.
Sums, which are drawn from banking accounts both of depositors and resources of the banks themselves by using computer systems, reach especially great sizes. Such crimes include those with corpus delict provided by Ukraine Criminal Code in Articles 190 “Fraud”, 200 “Illegal actions with transfer documents, plastic cards and other means of access to banking accounts, as well as equipment for their manufacture”, 361 “Illegal disturbance of work of electronic computers, systems and computer networks”, 362 “Stealing, appropriation, extortion of computer information or its possession by swindling or abusing official position”, 363 “Violation of rules of using automatic computer system”.
Now home criminalistics science has no data to define main elements of criminological characteristic of computer crimes committed in the banking system.
Researches show that 55% of interrogated persons have no idea about these categories, 39% - derived some knowledge in criminalistical characteristic of persons predisposed to committing computer crimes from unscientific sources, 66% - from mass media, 28% - from films and video (as a rule made abroad). It should be noted that responders were graduating students from Ukraine MIA (Ministry of internal affairs) institutes, who must have scientific information on what they will come across in their practical work. Such a situation cannot be considered positive. Therefore, it is necessary to resolve the problem of criminalistical characteristic of the given kind of criminal delinquents from the scientific and practical points of view.
The development of investigation methods is closely connected with generalization and analysis of materials of inquiry practice – the main source of working out methodical regulations and recommendations. Study of the practice of investigating some crimes in the making of criminalistics allowed establishing some general and important signs.
The first manual on criminalistics (I. Yakimov, Criminalistics. – M., 1929) elucidates some regulations, which characterize separate kinds of crimes and persons committing them, before taking up questions concerning the investigation technique. For example, the chapter about robbery and gangsterism investigation examines “modern kinds of these crimes”; the chapter about fraud investigation – “ways of committing frauds” and so on. However, this information was not full and sufficiently systematized at that time.
The development of theoretical bases of investigation technique, extension of inquiry practice analysis, as well as up-to-date ways and means of investigating the whole complex of general crimes, allow the investigation to assume a system character. Further developments in this direction resulted in defining “criminalistical characteristic of crimes”, determining its contents (1, 29-30), and later on – made an important theoretical conception.
O. Kolesnichenko and V. Konovalov say that the independent theme of “Criminalistical characteristic of crimes” (2, 7), which is elucidated now in every manual on criminalistics, was introduced into the program “Criminalistics” (for Law Institutes and Universities) in 1984. It should be noted that the term “criminalistical characteristic of crimes” as to the subject of methods of investigating crimes appears in the theoretical, methodical and educational literature on criminalistics (3, 95).
G. Matusovskiy says that constant development of criminalistical characteristic of crimes is “explained by the necessity of improving methods of their detection on the base of getting to know the nature of the criminal action itself, its mechanism, ways, regularities of the inquiry process, peculiarities of reflected evidences” (4).
Success in investigating any crimes mostly depends on an inspector's ability to understand not only its criminal-legal nature but also criminalistical one. The inspector can gain a correct understanding of criminalistical nature of the committed crime only under definite conditions. He should know typical criminalistical evidences of different crimes and be capable of revealing necessary criminalistical information in every concrete crime and comparing it with criminalistical characteristic of a corresponding crime.
Criminalistical characteristic of crime is based on studying material and ideal evidences – consequences, as a result of interaction between a criminal and other persons and material and other surrounding objects, which point at criminalistical evidences of a crime, criminal, various circumstances including those indirectly connected with the given crime, which can be important for detecting it. The process of forming elements, which make a structure of this characteristic, proceeding from the studied object, cannot help taking into consideration the general crime structure typical for its corresponding kind. At the same time, this structure cannot but coincide with criminal-legal, criminal-procedure and criminological directions of searching appropriate information on the crime.
By content and destination, criminal characteristic differs from other characteristics, for example, criminal-legal, criminological, trial-psychological ones, but they are interdependent and consider some likely elements, though in a different way.
Criminal-legal characteristic is formed on the base of analysis of crime evidences, which are important for revealing corpus delict, accuracy of its qualification, resolving other criminal-legal problems including those solved while passing a sentence (Article 324 of Ukraine CC).
Criminological characteristic includes systematized information, which is of importance to establishing reasons and conditions, which favor the commitment of crimes and use of ways to prevent them. Criminological characteristic of, for example, a theft of state and private property includes such main data as: a) condition of a fighting against thefts; b) classification of thefts; c) classification of criminals, characteristic of some types of thieves and their actions.
Trial-psychological characteristic reflects the most substantial psychological data on criminals and victims, typical groups of witnesses as to separate kinds of crimes and so on.
Different characteristics are used as a complex in the practical activity of crime investigation, every of which aims at making investigation more effective and establishing truth in a case.
Criminalistical characteristic of a crime unlike criminal-legal one is a component of a general understanding of a crime and bears auxiliary specific official character. Though there is no criminalistical description of an abstract crime, there is a general understanding of crime characteristic.
Juridical literature has many different definitions of criminalistical characteristic. They mainly reflect two standpoints. The first criminological characteristic makes a system of those and other crime signs. According to I. Artamonov it is a “scientifically developed system of the most substantial, typical criminalistical features, properties and signs of crimes of a definite category”, V. Gounyaev – “a system of fixed signs of a definite type (subtype) of a crime” (5), and other authors.
The second point of view consists in that criminalistical characteristic of a crime can be considered as “typical information model” (6, 38), “system of information on criminalistical evidences of a crime”, “information model of events” (7), “system of information on investigated crime, that is very important from the point of view of criminal-legal and procedural characteristic” (8, 180).
Comparing these standpoints one can agree with A.Doudnikov who notes that “system of criminalistical evidences of a crime is not a characteristic but reflection of event nature allowing to obtain criminalistical “picture” of a crime (9, 49). The second point of view, in our opinion, more exactly reflects the content of criminalistical characteristic of a crime.
Depending on the level and amount of information, which are contained in the criminalistical characteristic, it is divided into three types:
1) General characteristic, which are...
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