Improving the effectiveness of prevention in the context of the limits of the criminal law

¹ Saratov State Law Academy, Department of Criminal and Penal Enforcement Law, Saratov, Russia
² Saratov State Technical University named after Yuriy Gagarin, Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, Saratov, Russia

^* Corresponding author: zaitseva.o@bk.ru

Abstract

The rapid development of information and telecommunications technologies, the transformation of public relations caused by permanent socio-economic transformations which are happening in Russia and the world, result in numerous changes in criminal legislation and, as a result, problems associated with the establishment of spatial and temporal boundaries of criminal behavior. The purpose of the study is to develop practical recommendations aimed at improving the effectiveness of the preventive impact of criminal law by identifying the factors that determine the mentioned characteristics of a socially dangerous act. To solve these problems, the authors used the criminological tools of the study (the Bayesian method of time series forecasting, methods of questionnaires, and psychological analysis of criminal cases). In the article, for the first time, the problem of improving the effectiveness of criminal law prevention is considered in the context of the mechanism of individual criminal behavior. This allowed establishing that the spatial and temporal characteristics of a socially dangerous act do not depend on the structure of the crime, as it is considered in criminal science, but on the form of the offender’s guilt. The criminological understanding of the crime allowed the authors to formulate proposals for improving the current criminal legislation and the practice of its application. The authors believe that in the case of intentional acts, when determining the optional features of the objective aspect of the crime, it is necessary to consider the place of full implementation of all the planned actions by the person, regardless of the place of occurrence of socially dangerous consequences. In the case of careless criminal encroachments, the territorial parameters of the occurrence of the criminal result should play a defining role. This article also describes the author’s position on the place of commission of continuing and remote offenses.