Main Directions of Prevention of Group Offenses among Juvenile Convicts in Young Offender Institutions

The federal legislation views the prevention of juvenile delinquency and antisocial actions as very significant, since an offense is understood as an administrative offense and a criminal offense, and antisocial actions include other offenses. This issue is topical for young offender institutions; however, the special category of detainees implies a special category of crimes and violations of the established order of serving the sentence (disciplinary responsibility of convicts). By the end of 2020, there were 949 people in 18 young offender institutions. According to the statistics, the convicts did not commit crimes, yet there were more than 545 other violations. In the current circumstances, it is necessary to improve the prevention of offenses by focusing on specific activities in penal institutions, including active use of non-contact supervision over the behavior of convicts (stationary video cameras, portable video recorders, biometric identification means, access control and management systems). The researchers and practitioners are discussing the possibility of using electronic monitoring systems to supervise the behavior of convicts. This will allow a better quality of supervision over the special contingent and more effective preventive activities in young offender institutions.

COVID-19 Pandemic as a Catalyst for Digitalization of Russian Criminal Justice

The article discusses the digitalization of Russian criminal justice in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which became a serious global cataclysm in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has promoted the turn of the court practice to other massively available technologies, in particular to court hearings through a web conference. In the midst of the pandemic, Russia has experienced unprecedented cases of court hearings through such messengers as WhatsApp and Skype. Before the pandemic, Russian criminal justice was already using digital technologies, but it had to epand such practices during self-isolation and quarantine. The sudden pandemic has accelerated digitalization of criminal justice, becoming a kind of “point of no return” and a certain catalyst for change.

Conditions for the Application of Alternative Methods of Resolving Criminal Conflicts to Protect Public Interests

Public interests in criminal proceedings can be served not only through the perpetrator’s conviction, but also through alternative measures for resolving criminal conflicts. Their expediency is due, inter alia, to the fact that they are aimed at minimizing criminal repression in situations when society is not interested in the conviction and punishment of the offender who made amends for the damage caused. Such measures significantly rationalize the procedural resources used in this case, expedite criminal proceedings, and prevent the perpetrator’s stigmatization. Alternative methods can be used due to a set of conditions related to the committed act: offender’s personality and behavior, procedural expediency and organization of criminal prosecution, rationalization, acceleration, and consent of the parties and society.

Ensuring the Rights and Legal Interests of the Victim when Checking the Crime Report: A Comparative Legal Analysis of the Criminal Procedure Codes of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China

The article presents a comparative legal analysis of the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Procedure Code of the People’s Republic of China, which regulate the rights and powers of the victim within the framework of the stage of initiating a criminal case. The authors highlight several significant differences in the legal regulation of this issue. The differences are: the obligation to comply with the rules of jurisdiction in China at the stage of filing a statement of a crime, which is not required under the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation; compulsory fingerprinting of a person when filing a crime report with a public security agency implemented in China; the existence of several types of preliminary checks (the list of activities carried out as part of these checks in China is open); intensive development of IT technologies and their introduction into the life of society, including for the fight against crime and ensuring law and order in society, in China.

Restoration of Social Justice as a Goal of Criminal Punishment

The restoration of social justice as the goal of criminal punishment has already been in the focus of attention, though the Russian criminal legislation has included it for the first time. The legislator has not defined what is meant by “restoring social justice”, although the term “justice” can be found in Part 1 of Art. 60 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in Clause 1 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of January 11, 2007 “On the practice of imposing criminal punishment by the courts of the Russian Federation”. This circumstance has led to an ambiguous interpretation of the term in research and practice. Some researchers do not distinguish the categories of goal and principle of social justice and consider the goal of restoring social justice through the principle contained in Art. 6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, i.e. through the correspondence of punishment to the nature and degree of social danger of the crime. In criminal law, there are other approaches to this goal, which are analyzed in this article. The author concludes about the “utopian” character of this goal and its unattainability in real life.

On the Concept of Electronic Evidence and the Criteria for Their Admissibility

The article discusses the development of digital technologies in criminal proceedings and the process of proving in criminal cases in the era of global digitalization. Among the aspects that make this theme relevant are the dynamic development of information technologies, the conservatism and tradition of the criminal process, and the lack of proper regulation on this issue. The author aims at defining the concept of “electronic evidence”, specifying the list criteria for electronic evidence admissibility in Russian and foreign practice, and establishing the specifics of collecting evidence. The research methodology includes general and private methods of cognition: dialectical, formal-logical, comparative-legal, systemic, analysis and synthesis. The article provides an analysis of various perspectives of electronic evidence: electronic evidence is physical evidence; electronic evidence as belonging to other documents; electronic evidence as information in an electronic digital format obtained from a person, object or process and recorded on any material medium. The author adheres to the fourth position, according to which electronic evidence is an independent type of evidence, with its special form, media, mechanism of formation, and method of transformation into evidence. Providing examples of the use of electronic evidence in the Russian and foreign law enforcement practice, the author indicates their advantages and disadvantages and emphasizes that the complex storing, processing and transmitting digital information in an unchanged form determines the criteria for electronic evidence admissibility. Like other types of evidence, electronic one must meet the criteria of reliability, admissibility, and relevance. In addition, digital evidence should be subject to identification, authentication, verifiability, be complete (immutable) and reproducible. In conclusion, the author dwells on the peculiarities of collecting evidence, which should be enshrined in criminal procedural legislation: a) compliance with the general principles of collecting evidence; b) mandatory participation of a specialist; c) no actions causing a change in digital evidence before and during its collection; d) documenting all actions related to the collection, storage, access or transfer of digital evidence; e) responsibility of an official working with electronic evidence for all activities with it; e) ensuring the proper transmission or transportation of digital evidence, as well as appropriate conditions for its storage, depending on the category of information it contains.

Implementation of Alternative Sentences in the International Standards of the 21st Century

The article analyzes the provisions of international standards, namely the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers on the Council of Europe Probation Rules of 2010 and the European Rules on Community Sanctions and Measures of 2017. The author examines the problems of differentiation and individualization of sentences and analyzes the provisions of international standards on nondiscrimination in the implementation of sanctions. Many factors of non-discrimination that are new to international standards (physical disabilities, ethnic origin, sexual orientation) can cause disputes in terms of the applicability of alternative sentences. Discussing the offender’s “consent” and the prospects for its use, taking into account the right of such an offender to appeal against the decisions and actions of probation officers, the author focuses on the activities of the implementation bodies, including work with victims, prevention of relapse, restorative justice, which is preferred nowadays in the foreign studies, and work with the convict’s family to develop a classification of powers depending on the action and scope of assistance to the offender. Having analyzed the positive and negative legal consequences of the convict’s non-fulfillment or improper fulfillment of the duties or conditions imposed by the competent authority, the author argues that the regulation of a conflict is possible in three ways: by sorting it out urgently at one’s own discretion, through administrative proceedings and in court, with the choice depending on the type of violation. The key aspect of alternative sentences is the effectiveness of their implementation. The article provides a list of such criteria, of which the relapse rate is considered an important one, and discusses the main problems of the “community” sanctions and measures faced by the implementation bodies. It is stated that the development of international standards of alternative sanctions has elaborated the procedure for their implementation, both by complementing the previously existing provisions and by including new ones.

Business Fraud and Other Kinds of Theft by Deception and Abuse of Confidence: Distinction Criteria

The article discusses the problem of differentiation of types of fraud in the criminal code both as the main corpus delicti and special types of fraud. The study aims at improving the practice of application and criminal legal qualifications. In the course of the study, the authors have identified and clarified the criteria for distinguishing between these crimes and provided reliable arguments for differentiation for all elements of fraud.

Bail as a Preventive Measure: Some Problems and Ways to Improve Effectiveness

The bail serves to reduce the likelihood of the situation when the suspect or the accused flees from inquiry, preliminary investigation or trial, continues the criminal activity; threatens a witness and (or) other participants in criminal proceedings, destroys evidence, or otherwise obstructs a criminal case proceedings. Drawing on the structure of crimes committed in Russia, with more than half being property crimes such as theft and fraud, choosing bail as a preventive measure, if possible, seems to be a logical and apparently popular measure due to several circumstances. Most of the mercenary crimes are motivated by the illegal acquisition of property or money. Consequently, bail as a restraint measure affects the lucrative motivation of the suspect or the accused and is often adequate to the damage caused. A significant problem of social justice restoration in most criminal cases is the compensation for damage or harm, which in most cases is measured in monetary and property terms. In this case, the bail could become a real mechanism for compensation for such harm, because money or property in the case of bail is already available at the time of the trial and could be used to compensate for the harm caused. However, in reality, such compensation is not used. The conversion of bail to state revenue in case of violation by the accused or suspect of obligations related to the bail does not contribute to the solution of this problem.

Some Legal Remedies of Prosecutor’s Supervision over the Legality of Procurement Activities

Legal remedies of prosecutor’s supervision should be understood as the powers of prosecutors provided for by law, as well as the procedure and form of their implementation. A distinctive feature of the legal remedies of prosecutor’s supervision is that, as a result of their application, there always arises a legal relationship between the prosecutor’s office and the supervised person. The legal remedies of prosecutor’s supervision over the legality of procurement activities are classified according to traditional criteria: remedies aimed at identifying violations in the field of procurement activities – the powers of the prosecutor provided for by Art. 22 of the Law on the Prosecutor’s Office; remedies aimed at eliminating violations of the law – protests and proposals; and remedies aimed at bringing the perpetrators to justice – decisions on the initiation of administrative proceedings and sending materials containing signs of a crime to the criminal prosecution body to resolve the issue of initiating a criminal case. Practice shows that the most frequently used and effective means is the prosecutor’s appeal to the court with a statement of claim. The judicial order is the most effective: it allows fully influencing the offender and ensuring the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of entrepreneurs or the state. The main objectives of the prosecutor’s participation in trials are to ensure efficiency in spending budget funds, broad participation in procurement activities of various entities, fair competition, transparency of procurement procedures, elimination of corruption-generating factors, prevention of violations in procurement activities by procurement participants.