Increased Economic Crime in the Housing and Utilities Sector: Reasons and Ways to Overcome Them

Introduction. The housing and utilities sector is an integral part of the national economy affecting absolutely all citizens of Russia. In recent years, the number of economic crimes committed in this sector has increased. Bringing down the level of crime, developing the crime preventive measures in this sector constitute the scientific interest and relevance of the study. The purpose of the study is to analyse the reasons of increased economic crime in the sector of housing and utilities (hereinafter — housing and utilities), as well as to develop theoretical and practical recommendations aimed at decreasing the level of crime in this sector.Materials and Methods. To achieve the set forth goal, the general scientific dialectical method of cognition was used, the methods of analysis and synthesis used for generalising theoretical and practical material, the empirical and statistical methods made it possible to draw the main conclusion of the study and achieve the goal.Results. A comprehensive and multifaceted approach to solving the problem of increased economic crime in the housing and utilities sector has been implemented from perspective of criminal law, criminal-procedural and criminological scientific knowledge. The scientific value of this study is gained due to the comprehensive review of the reasons in the context of the overall picture of economic criminality in housing and utilities sector which allows making the most complete conclusions and defining general and specific criminological measures for preventing crime in the housing and utilities sector, namely, general social, economic, organisational and legal and educational measures; the specific ones carried out by the state housing supervision authorities and the internal affairs authorities.Discussion and Conclusions. The analysis of the judicial and investigative materials made it possible to identify the reasons of increased economic crime in the housing and utilities sector, as well as to develop efficient preventive measures to combat such crime. The article provides recommendations for practicing specialists (investigators of the economic crimes in the housing and utilities sector; judges hearing and passing sentences in this category of cases; employees of administrative offices calculating and setting the rates and resource-supplying companies charging the utility payments), as well as for researchers in the field of criminal law sciences.