No 2 (2021)

Despite the permanent interest of scientists in the issue of corruption, the nature of its basics as an anti-social phenomenon remains understudied. As such principle, the paper considers the conflict of interests of participants in various public relations related to the exercise and abuse of power. The paper aims at showing the nature of the conflict of interests as the basis of such anti-social phenomenon as corruption, identifying subjective and objective causes of corruption. The authors analyze the gaps and weaknesses of current anti-corruption legislation and the practice of its application. The paper gives specific examples of a conflict of interests in various corruptogenic spheres and manifestations, for instance, in the sphere of economic entities’ participation in tenders announced by state and municipal authorities. The authors consider the legal and moral ways of preventing conflicts, the role of ethical norms in preventing conflicts, the legal framework of their prevention and resolution, the ratio of the conflict of interests and the employee’s qualification, the relationship between the material and personal interest, the activities of commissions for preventing a conflict of interests guaranteeing the role of written notification of a conflict of interests, special aspects of the notification procedure, and the consequences of non-compliance with the written notification. The study shows that a conflict of interests and corruption risks are eliminated both through legal means and moral ones, whereby the moral qualities of leaders and the requirements imposed on the heads of state and municipal authorities are of particular importance. Nepotism, increasingly prevalent in power and management structures (kinship and clientelism), is a common form of a conflict of interests, which undermines the moral foundations of public and municipal service.

Russia is among the top ten in terms of the number of suicides per capita. There are many reasons why a person decides to leave life. Often, it is the result of long-term problems and experiences that a person could not cope with. The reasons for suicide can also be the actions of other persons, including criminal ones classified by criminal law as incitement to suicide. The inaccuracy of the formulated disposition in the article on the incitement to suicide or attempted suicide (Article 110 of the RF Criminal Code) causes controversy in the scientific community and some difficulties in law enforcement. The paper studies the definition of individual objective and subjective signs of incitement to suicide and the search for ways to resolve them. The authors considered various positions of the authors of the interpretation of the concept of objective and subjective signs - a threat as a method of bringing to suicide, a form of guilt of such crime and analyzed the reasons for the contradictory judicial practice in their determination. The analysis allowed differentiating criminal liability of a person who committed a crime considering the principle of justice. The authors propose to amend the disposition of Article 110 of the RF Criminal Code by dividing into separate parts deliberate actions aimed at incitement to suicide and negligence and intent concerning the consequences; to add to the specified article a particularly classifying feature in the form of deliberate actions led to a suicide or attempted suicide of a minor and mentally defective person; to add to Article 163 of the RF Criminal Code (extortion) a particularly classifying feature in the form of serious consequences by negligence, including a suicide.

The importance of combating corruption-related crimes is relevant; furthermore, the high latency of such crimes confirms the necessity to identify the combination of factors influencing the increase and decrease in the level of corruption-related crimes in the country. The paper deals with the study of factors causing corruption-related crimes in the Russian Federation and those promoting the decrease in its level. The paper analyses the empirical data for 2010-2021 on the most common corruption crimes (Art. 290, 291 of the RF CC), the cases of which have been referred to court. The author carried out the correlation-regression analysis of quantitative factors, which can influence the level of corruption crimes in the country, and, based on the analysis, made the conclusions and gave recommendations. The study proves that the increase in the number of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs per one unit leads to the decrease in the number of corruption-related crimes on average by 0.0126 units, and the increase in the number of employees on the federal level per one unit leads to the decrease in the number of corruption-related crimes on average by 0.998 units. The study proves that the increase in the number of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs per one unit leads to the decrease in the number of corruption-related crimes in average by 0.0126 units; and the increase in the number of employees on the federal level per one unit leads to the decrease in the number of corruption-related crimes in average by 0.998 units. The main method of combating the corruption-related crimes is a criminal legal method, which application efficiency causes doubt in terms of economic crimes decriminalization. To improve the efficiency of combating the corruption crimes, the author proposes creating the institution of a Commissioner for Anti-Corruption Policy under the RF President for the reliable identification of corruption crimes and independent control over the investigation, introducing measures to strengthen openness and justification of the RF budget system expenditures.

Currently, the prevention of family and domestic offenses is one of the priority areas of activity of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Poor-quality and untimely response of police officers to this type of offense, as well as heinous crimes, garnered media coverage, preceded by family conflicts, create a negative public opinion about the activities of the police and the state as a whole. This work deals with the improvement of the effectiveness of the work carried out by the internal affairs bodies to prevent and suppress the facts of family and domestic conflicts, including those accompanied by the violence against children and women. Within the framework of the research, the authors pay special attention to the concept of family and domestic offenses, the analysis of the causes and conditions of the occurrence of family and domestic offenses, legal foundations of regulating the liability in the sphere of family and domestic conflicts according to the laws of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The authors analyzed the main directions of prevention of domestic crimes and administrative violations by district police officers, identified tactical aspects of work with people registered with law enforcement agencies when executing preventive patrolling in an administrative area. The paper proposes a mechanism of involvement of the public and specific categories of citizens in the assistance to law enforcement agencies to timely domestic violations detection and suppression. Following the analysis, the authors conclude that the insurance of effective work on the eradication of considered negative social phenomenon is the patrolling in an administrative area, preventive conversations based on the study of a psychological maker of persons, their past, and basic personality characteristics, as well as on the awareness of their immediate environment and relations carrying both positive and negative connotation. The study shows that the issues of protection of family members’ life and health against offenses should be solved holistically, in cooperation with other agencies and institutes of civil society.