Abuse of power or official position as an element of criminalistic characterization

The article provides a comprehensive criminalistic study of abuse of power or official position as one of the key elements of criminalistic characterization of the relevant category of crimes. The expediency of considering the method of committing an official offense as an interrelated set of actions, techniques, and methods used by the guilty person both at the stage of preparation and commission of the crime and at its post-criminal stage (the stage of concealment) is substantiated. The methods of abuse of power are classified according to the forms of implementation: active (including the issuance of individual acts, actual expressions of will without documentary formalization), passive (unlawful inaction), and mixed (combined) forms, which combine both approaches. Based on an analysis of judicial and investigative practice, it has been established that the vast majority of cases of abuse of power or official position occur through active unlawful actions by officials (91% of the total number of criminal proceedings investigated); in 63% of cases, through the adoption of an individual act by an official; in 7% of cases, by authoritative expressions of will that are not formally documented as individual acts. It is proposed to divide the methods of abuse of power or official position into fully structured (including three stages of criminal activity) and partially structured (with missing or simplified components). Particular attention is paid to the stage of preparation for the abuse, within which separate groups of actions are considered aimed at: preparing the conditions for the direct commission of the crime; determining the method and sequence of the direct commission of the crime; planning and forecasting options for the development of the unlawful event; determining the ways and methods of concealing the crime; searching for and selecting a so-called pre-criminal situation; analyzing and determining the real conditions for committing a crime. The most common ways of concealing abuse of power or official position are analyzed, in particular: distortion of accounting, statistical, and other reporting documentation; destruction or intentional loss of management or official documentation; giving false testimony; bribery; transferring knowledgeable persons to other positions, dismissing them, discrediting them. The conclusions of the article are of considerable practical value for improving the effectiveness of detecting, qualifying, and investigating crimes under Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.