Pandemic as an additional criminality factor

¹ Saint Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Department of Criminal Law, Saint Petersburg, Russia
² Ufa Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Ufa, Russia

^* Corresponding author: lgotchina@yandex.ru

Abstract

The prerequisite for the study was the emerging new “coronavirus” disease, viewed as a criminality factor. The objective of the study is to identify new characteristics of crime in the context of the incidence of coronavirus in the population, to identify its highly latent types, to reflect the dynamics. The following methods were used to achieve the objective: analysis, synthesis, generalization, statistical method, content analysis, method of expert assessments. The results of the work were the revealed patterns of crime in the sphere of illegal circulation of drugs, weapons, and domestic violence. The novelty is the identification of highly latent types of crime during a pandemic and its characteristic features. Issues related to the prevention of domestic violence during a pandemic with the participation of law enforcement agencies and guardianship authorities in this work were considered. The draft laws “On responsibility for domestic violence” and “On restricting the removal of children from the family” were discussed, recommendations for their improvement were provided. Attention is focused on the practicability of strengthening preventive measures in the fight against domestic violence to preserve families and ensure the interests of children. An increase in the number of drug crimes was revealed during the pandemic, both in Russia and abroad. The Russian drug market is experiencing a shortage of smuggled drugs. It is reoriented to synthetic drugs with new underground drug laboratories being opened. The main contingent of attraction to drug use is still young people and adolescents, the main method – using Internet technologies. The increase in the number of crimes in the sphere of illegal arms trafficking was provoked by the factor of fear, due to the presence of the threat of becoming a victim of selfish and violent crimes. The consequence is consumer panic and an increase in the need of the Russian population for self-defense.