Assistance of persons to bodies carrying out operational investigative activities as a manifestation of social deviations

Abstract

Introduction. Crime, as a single personal behavioral act, and criminality, as a socio-legal phenomenon, are social deviations of individuals and groups. The state is forced to use a compulsory law enforcement apparatus to deter crime and level out its negative socio-economic consequences. In the system of the state compulsory apparatus for combating crime, the tacit assistance of persons to bodies carrying out operational investigative activities is a special, most effective and rational functional and legal instrument. Based on previous research, the author notes the unwillingness of both lawabiding citizens and representatives of the criminal environment to assist operational units. However, the determinants underlying this unwillingness are different. The author puts forward for further scientific research and discussion the hypothesis that the tacit assistance of persons to bodies carrying out operational investigative activities is the result of social deviations in the social groups under consideration. In the author’s opinion, the study of the causes and forms of these deviations from certain social norms characteristic of both (law-abiding and criminal) groups can optimize the process of involving individuals in the unofficial assistance and the fight against crime. Methods and methodology. The study used general scientific dialectical, comparative legal, formal logical methods and the method of content analysis. This made it possible to identify signs and forms of manifestation of deviations among persons assisting law enforcement agencies. Results. Based on the results of the own research and previous scientific research by other legal experts, the author comes to the conclusion that at present, the assistance of law-abiding and upstanding citizens and representatives of the criminal environment is largely determined by the deviations perceived among social groups in question. Among law-abiding citizens, deviation is expressed in a persistent unwillingness to assist law enforcement agencies in general and operational units in particular, in the presence of compassion for the direct victims of these crimes. Deviations of representatives of the criminal environment are expressed in a situational readiness to neglect corporate (subcultural) moral standards of behavior – “criminal concepts” - and provide unofficial assistance in order to achieve their own mercenary goals.