Prevention of Economic Crimes by the Police: A Legal Measurement

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of crime prevention in the economic sphere, which is considered relevant in view of the large number of reports of criminal acts, especially in the area of the use of budgetary funds, privatisation relations, land relations, foreign economic activity, etc.In addition, the article focuses on the study of cybercrime, since most economic crimes are committed via the Internet, and therefore it is considered necessary to implement appropriate measures to prevent and combat illegal manifestations in the field of digital relations.It is emphasised that economic crime primarily threatens the national security of the state.It should be noted that maintaining a sufficient level of protection against criminal manifestations in the economic sphere is implemented in different ways in developed countries, but the problem of criminals' constant improvement of mechanisms and methods of committing criminal acts in this sphere remains.The article examines the main problems of economic crime prevention.Based on a survey, the author found that investigators today lack the specialised knowledge and skills in both economics and IT (at least at a basic level) to successfully investigate economic crime, which has a negative impact on the quality of investigation, combating and prevention of crime in this area.The article shows that Ukraine does not yet have an appropriate law enforcement agency, and the draft law "On the principles of preventing and combating economic crimes and exercising financial control" does not contain any information on the nature of the state body that would have the authority and capacity to effectively monitor illegal manifestations in the economic sphere.It is noted that the prevention of economic crime will be facilitated by the creation of a sufficient set of training for future police officers in the field of economics and IT.It is also considered necessary to create a single police unit that will deal only with economic crimes.