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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.61.01.25
How to Cite:
Odnolko, I., Niebytov, A., Pohoretskyi, M., Denysenko, G., & Serbyna, N. (2023). Criminological dimension of counteracting
corruption crime in Ukraine. Amazonia Investiga, 12(61), 248-254. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.61.01.25
Criminological dimension of counteracting corruption crime in
Ukraine
Кримінологічний вимір протидії корупційній злочинності в Україні
Received: January 12, 2023 Accepted: February 23, 2023
Written by:
Odnolko Inna104
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4896-4728
Niebytov Andrii105
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8493-3064
Pohoretskyi Mykola106
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0936-0929
Denysenko Grygorii107
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4132-8195
Serbyna Nataliia108
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1199-5491
Abstract
The purpose of the article is to analyze the
content and essence of combating corruption
crime in Ukraine through the lens of
criminology. Research results. It is proven that
corruption crime both in Ukraine and in the
world in general is an extremely destructive
factor. This phenomenon tries to penetrate all
spheres of social life and make democratic and
legal procedures, which are a guarantee of a high
level and quality of life, impossible. Practical
meaning. Attention is drawn to the fact that the
existing indicators of corruption crime in
Ukraine, the improvement of its qualitative
characteristics, as well as the possibility of rapid
growth under martial law require an appropriate
response from scientists, legal researchers,
legislator and law enforcement officers.
Value/originality. The perspective of further
research is the need to analyze the mechanisms
of combating corruption crime in the top
democracies of the world, which will allow to
generalize such practice and form a wide range
of proposals and recommendations to optimize
the functioning of the relevant mechanism in our
country.
104
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of Chernobyl Heroes Fire Safety Institute of the National University of
Civil Defense of Ukraine, Ukraine.
105
Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Head of the Main Department of the National Police in the Kiev region, Ukraine.
106
Doctor of Science in Law, Professor, Vice-rector for scientific and pedagogical work of Taras Shevchenko National University of
Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine.
107
PhD in Law, Senior Scientific Associate of the National Academy of the Security Service of Ukraine, Ukraine.
108
Candidate of Legal Sciences, Chief Specialist of the Department of Ensuring the Activities of the Training Center of the Training
Center for the Prosecutors of Ukraine, Ukraine.
Odnolko, I., Niebytov, A., Pohoretskyi, M., Denysenko, G., Serbyna, N. / Volume 12 - Issue 61: 248-254 / January, 2023
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/ January 2023
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Key words: corruption, criminology, crime,
counteraction, prevention, Ukraine.
Introduction
Corruption in Ukraine and the world is one of the
most dangerous social factors. It negatively
affects the formation of modern democracies,
complicates the process of guaranteeing the
rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen, and
does not allow any state of law to form such a
level of State policy regarding the provision of all
benefits to its own citizens, which will allow
them not only to possess, but also to realize all
rights and freedoms.
The fight against corruption in Ukraine is one of
the main tasks of law enforcement agencies
(Shcherbakovskyi et al., 2020, p. 117). At the
same time, it should be noted that under modern
conditions, a significant share of legal relations
and the possible successful provision of human
and civil rights and liberties in a certain sector of
socio-legal relations can be realized only through
criminological measures and means.
Criminology as a science studying crime trends
in general and corruption in particular, allows
forming an essential idea about such a social
phenomenon and ensuring the establishment of
effective policy to prevent its further
development and entrenchment in the legal
tradition of the respective society.
It is these interconnected factors, given the active
hostilities on the territory of Ukraine and
considering European integration intentions of
our country, that necessitate effective and in-
depth scientific study of relevant problematic
issues with the need for further elaboration of
proposals and recommendations to address them.
Thus, the purpose of our study is to analyze the
fight against corruption in Ukraine through the
prism of criminology.
Literature Review
It should be noted that the relevant topic has been
repeatedly explored by many authoritative
researchers. In science even formed a number of
scientific schools, the profile of which is the
analysis of problematic issues related to the fight
against corruption and its manifestations. This is
what creates the circumstances under which the
respective positions and views must be taken into
account in this work.
The first scientist, whose was devoted to the
problem of political corruption, is Ford (1904),
who, comparing the situation in the USA and
Great Britain raised the issue of political
corruption, which is most evident when new
elites face practices unacceptable to them.
Later, Brooks considered the issue of bribery of
officials in the US government in the scientific
publications "The Nature of Political Corruption"
(1909), and then in monograph "Corruption in
American politics and life" (1910), which were
favorably received by the scientific community.
The issue of combating corruption in further
scientific developments has been considered
through the lens of political science, state and
municipal law for a long time, until Nye in his
publication "Corruption and political
development – analysis of costs and benefits" did
not justify their economic aspect (1967). In turn,
the publication of the work "Crime and
punishment: an economic approach" by Gary
Stanley Becker (1968) marked the formation of a
new direction of neo-institutionalizalism of the
crime economy, as well as significant interest of
the scientific community in the researched issues.
Heidenheimer (1988) states that corruption is
deviant behavior combined with private
motivation and means that private (individual,
group) goals are achieved at public expense.
Clearly, when formulating the definition of
corruption, it is necessary to take into account
that criminology is primarily a complex science
of crime, its content and forms of manifestation,
determinants, state, structure and dynamics, the
identity of the perpetrator and victim, as well as
means of combating crime. As Shakun (2019,
p. 352) notes, "criminology investigates the issue
of legal, socio-economic, and managerial
provision of crime prevention, develops criteria
and indicators of the effectiveness of
precautinory activities".
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Based on this statement, Melnyk (2004, p. 137)
believes that criminological study of corruption
should focus on corruption itself, as "a relatively
massive socio-legal phenomenon including the
entire set of corruption crimes and the persons
who committed them".
Besides, corruption crime cannot be considered
separately from corruption as a phenomenon and
separately from other legal branches of science
that study it. Therefore, when investigating
corruption crime, it is impossible not to dwell on
corruption in all its manifestations, which are not
part of the subject matter of criminology, but
complement and enrich criminological
investigations in this direction (Busol, 2014,
p. 31).
Corruption crime prevention, according to
Shevchenko (2011, p. 126), is related as a whole
and a part, and therefore the latter is understood
as a separate direction of anti-corruption to
eliminate and neutralize the determinants of
corruption crime with the help of a complex of
special means of influencing social relations with
the aim of bringing them into line with the
current legislation.
The researchers have repeatedly pointed out that,
taking into account the rapid progress of society
and new spheres of relations, which are the main
object for corruption, the legislative framework
establishing the basis for prevention and
countering this phenomenon should be analyzed
and improved every year, as well as new methods
assisting in revealing the facts of corruption in
various spheres of society should be created
(Romanov, 2020, p. 217). This, in particular,
necessitates additional elaboration of the main
legal provisions establishing the institution of
combating corruption crime in Ukraine.
Besides, the researchers state that the content of
corruption determines its crisis nature, which
means the existence of crisis conditions for its
occurrence: 1) crisis of socio-economic
development of the state (the GDP level is
insufficient for economic development, and
therefore, the relatively low level of wages and
social guarantees in the system of public service)
and 2) crisis manifestations in the management
of public affairs (situational nature of
organizational transformations, failure to take
into account the professional and personal
abilities of an employee, deficiencies in
personnel work, etc.) (Masliy 2013, p. 360).
The complexity of corruption research is also
caused by the fact that it is a phenomenon that
does not have an unambiguous solution. It does
not depend on the form of government or the
democratic or undemocratic nature of the
political regime. Therefore, in some cases,
scientists’ attempts to avoid over-criminalization
of research on corruption in order to increase the
effectiveness of their scientific work seem
justified. However, on the other hand, there are
cases of transformation of research into free
philosophizing, usually based on subjective
assessments and emotional impressions of
surrounding events. As it is known, criminology
is a complex science by its nature, it covers legal,
sociological, and psychological theoretical
positions. But the sociological and empirical
material is described and analyzed from the
standpoint of law. By transferring sociological
and psychological knowledge to the field of law,
criminology expands its opportunities in the field
of studying the crime system and the problems of
its prevention.
Methodology
Monographic method was applied in the
examination of scientific works by foreign and
domestic scholars, who studied the phenomenon
of corruption in general ans through the prism of
criminology in particular.
With the help of the phenomenological method,
the phenomenon of corruption, the reasons for its
growth, rooting and maintenance at a high level
of prevalence and social danger were
investigated.
System and structural method helped to identify
key features of corruption crime in
criminological aspect.
Statistical method was used in identifying the
areas of social life in Ukraine, in which
corruption is most widespread.
The method of abstraction and generalization
made it possible to analyze corruption as a
systemic phenomenon, its evolution and impact
on society, as well as the connections and
dependencies between corruptionogenic factors.
These methods also helped to conclude that
prevention is the strategic direction of the fight
against corruption.
Analyzes method was applied in the
determination of the main anti-corruption
measures in Ukraine.
Application of modelling method enabled to
draw the conclusions related to the research.
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Results and Discussion
In the criminological aspect, corruption crimes
are characterized by a number of key features:
Deliberate use of authority and related facilities
in the public and private spheres of public
administration, local self-government,
individuals and legal entities;
with the special purpose of obtaining an undue
benefit in form of money or other property,
advantages, benefits, services, intangible assets,
any other benefits, whether non-material or not;
acceptance or acceptance of a promise/offer to
obtain an unlawful benefit for oneself or other
persons;
promise/offer or providing undue benefit to the
person, authorized to perform the functions of the
State or local self-government and who is a
subject of corruption;
promise/offer or provision of an unlawful benefit
at the request of the person authorized to perform
the functions of the State or local self-
government to other natural or legal persons with
a view to inducing that person to misuse the
service provided to him or the opportunities
related to them;
the subject, which is only persons authorized to
perform the functions of the state or local self-
government, as well as persons who are equated
with them (National Academy of Internal
Affairs, (n.d)).
Accordingly, this characterization of corruption,
through the prism of the opinions of researchers,
as well as the norms of Ukrainian legislation,
indicates not only its high social danger, but also
the need for a polyvariate and large-scale
response to such manifestations, the
development of state strategies and concepts
aimed at meeting social needs in the specified
area.
The problems of corruption crimes and fighting
them are important in the field of combating
crime in general, since this process involves a
comprehensive study of this legal phenomenon
not only from the perspective of criminal law, but
also criminology. Anti-corruption is a complex
concept including not only bodies authorized to
fight corruption, but also the interaction of such
agencies in achieving a common task, constant
improvement of their qualifications and the
existence of public control. Thus, the concept of
criminological characteristics of corruption
crime from the standpoint of an integrated
approach includes quantitative and qualitative
indicators of the state of crime, information on
the identity of the offender and the circumstances
relevant to organizing of preventive work
(Mezentseva, 2014, p. 110). That is, considering
this phenomenon as a destructive social factor in
the criminological dimension, attention should
be paid not only to its qualitative indicators, but
also to the effectiveness of the work of the
relevant bodies in the indicated direction; it is
necessary to realize (contribute to) the potential
of the State in this segment of political, legal and
social administration.
Thus, according to the results of one of the
sociological studies conducted by the Ilko
Kucheriv «Democratic Initiatives» foundation
(2017), corruption is most common in the such
bodies of State power and certain areas:
medicine; police; judiciary; State power as a
whole; the political sphere in general – more than
80%; higher education; prosecutor’s office; tax
authorities; political parties; customs service;
local self-government as a whole; economic
sphere, enterprise activity – about 70%;
secondary education; Armed Forces of Ukraine;
professional unions – about 50%. The presented
statistical indicators have a direct impact on the
formation of the scientific foundations of
understanding the criminological dimension of
countering corruption crime, since it is the
understanding of the subject of corruption and its
sphere that allows us to provide an effective
response to relevant manifestations, as well as to
plan further measures to counter and prevent it.
In addition, it should be noted that criminological
science, by summarizing the set of quantitative
and qualitative indicators regarding a certain type
of crime (in this case - corruption), provides the
possibility of deepening and expanding the
scientific understanding of individual features of
the corresponding phenomenon, depending on
the sphere of its existence, as well as the stage of
detection (or actual appearance).
Accordingly, corruption activities require not
only broad public condemnation from a social
point of view, but also a proper response of state
institutions in the method of determining a clear
list of lawful and unlawful acts.
According to Harashchuk & Mukhataiev (2010,
p. 128), although preventive measures are
important because of objective and subjective
circumstances, they do not always achieve their
goal. Therefore, the problem of optimizing ways
of detecting and investigating specific facts of
crimes in the area of official activity and bringing
to justice those responsible provided for by law
remains particularly acute, that, through the lens
of the science of criminology, clearly
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demonstrates the need to standardize a number of
effective legislative steps to counter and prevent
corruption crimes in Ukraine, which is possible
only by using criminological tools.
Busol (2014, p. 4) repeatedly drew attention to
the fact that the strategic direction of the fight
against corruption is its prevention. Integrated
precautions are a way that can reduce the volume
of corruption manifestations and their negative
impact on society. The main anti-corruption
measures in Ukraine are: 1) determination of the
strategy of socio-economic development and
implementation of administrative reform.
Building the rule of law and civil society is the
basis for corruption prevention. Cosmetic
changes in public administration, even if they are
externally attractive, cannot improve the
situation in the fight against this negative
phenomenon. Prevention this crime requires the
study of the conditions, in which the anti-
corruption strategy is formed and implemented in
Ukraine in the modern period, the evaluation of
the State policy in this direction, as well as the
identification of criminologically significant
problems in the application of specific
prevention mechanisms. The key to the
development of strategic approaches to the
corruption prevention is the establishment of a
circle of subjects who should play a leading role
in this process – specialized anti-corruption
bodies, law enforcement agencies, and other
institutions of civil society or individual citizens.
The given factors, through the prism of the
science of criminology, make it possible to form
a range of requirements that, under the conditions
of their effective implementation and
constructive, sometimes global and sometimes
situational influences processes of corruption
counteraction and prevention, will allow
achieving high results.
So, for example, a number of official websites of
the State authorities of Ukraine claim that the
most corrupt spheres of activity are the
following: public procurement; extrabudgetary
accounts established for legitimate purposes
(pension, travel funds, etc.), the income of which
accumulates in the pockets of officials; tax
relations (tax benefits, etc.); sale of raw materials
at below-market prices; unification of territories
(zoning) and decentralization, as they affect the
value of land; extraction of natural resources;
sale of state assets, especially privatization of
state enterprises; land relations (organization of
the land market with its subsequent sale);
granting monopoly access to a certain type of
commercial (especially export-import) activity;
control over the shadow economy and illegal
business (extortion, protection against
persecution, destruction of competitors, etc.);
appointment to positions of responsibility in
government; licensing and registration of
business (including banking) activities; issuance
of permits for the placement of securities and
conducting banking operations with budget
funds; obtaining loans (including government
loans); customs clearance of imported goods;
obtaining export quotas; construction and repair
at the expense of budget funds; initiation and
termination of criminal proceedings (Southern
interregional administration of the State Labor
Service, (n.d)).
Such qualitative indicators allow to conclude that
depending on the specific type of crime in the
field of corruption, as well as the segment of legal
relations to which it belongs, the perspective of
risk assessment and the development of
appropriate response plans becomes possible on
the specified destructive factors. Compared to
Western democracies, a separate problematic
issue of clarifying the essence of the
criminological dimension of combating
corruption crime is the possibility of measuring
the damage caused by the influence of corruption
on all legal relations arising in risky spheres.
For example, the USA, Great Britain and other
countries have been conducting research on
determining the "price" of crime for the past few
decades. In addition, the amount of human and
material losses, which were avoided thanks to the
effective activity of all law enforcement,
including anti-corruption, agencies, is being
studied. Only in this case it is possible to draw a
conclusion about the ratio of material resources
spent on maintaining the law enforcement system
of Ukraine and the funds saved as a result of
taking measures of criminological prevention
and cessation of crimes, including corruption. If
crime prevention savings are larger than the
amount of public finances spent by criminal
justice bodies, then it is possible to talk about the
effectiveness of law enforcement agencies, the
professionalism of their management, and the
feasibility of continuing the chosen law
enforcement strategy (Marshuba, 2016, p. 126).
In our opinion, the specified approach, reflecting
international experience in developing an attitude
to anti-corruption, should be applied in Ukraine,
since this destructive phenomenon affects not
only the course of social relations, but also causes
some damage to the standards of resource
management protected by the State, which has a
specific the intended use is social security, the
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medical industry, as well as others. Accordingly,
if the countermeasures and the actual fight
against it do not compensate the caused harm and
mostly exceed the costs incurred – this is the
main criterion for revision of the relevant forms
and methods of this activity.
Conclusions
The article analyzes the content and essence of
combating corruption crime in Ukraine through
the prism of the science of criminology, which in
turn, should contribute to the highest possible
quality and fundamental provision of human and
citizen rights and freedoms in the State.
It is proved that corruption crime both in Ukraine
and in the world in general is an extremely
destructive factor, which should be balanced by
appropriate countermeasures and prevention
measures. Corruption tries to penetrate all
spheres of social life and make democratic and
legal procedures, which are a guarantee of a high
level and quality of life, impossible.
Attention is drawn to the fact that combating
crime in general, and corruption crime in
particular, is one of the most important priorities
of the State apparatus, because it is the relevant
entity, as the main socio-legal regulator, that is
responsible for ensuring law and order and
observing the rights and freedoms of man and
citizen both on the territory of Ukraine and
abroad.
It is stressed that the existing indicators of crime
in Ukraine, improving its quality and potential
for rapid growth in the number of committed
criminal offenses of a certain type in connection
with Russia’s armed aggression against the
territorial sovereignty and independence of
Ukraine require an appropriate response from
scientists, legal researchers, legislator and law
enforcement officers. And because, through the
lens of criminology, action must be taken long
before the actual intent to commit a crime,
strategic and operational planning should play a
significant role.
The perspective of further research lies in the
need to analyze the mechanisms of combating
corruption crime in the top democracies of the
world, which will allow, by summarizing such
practice, to form a wide range of proposals and
recommendations to optimize the functioning of
the relevant mechanism in our country.
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