CIRCUMSTANCES TO BE PROVEN IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS ABOUT CRIMES COMMITTED BY CRIMINAL COMMUNITIES

Abstract

Abstract. The article examines the peculiarities, inherent circumstances that are subject to proof in the pre-trial investigation of crimes committed by criminal communities, which are determined by the concept of a criminal offense, the basis of criminal liability or exemption from criminal liability, general principles of punishment, features of specific crimes. Taking into account the considered features, the circumstances included in the subject of proof for this category of criminal offenses were defined and considered. It is substantiated that the specifics of the subject of evidence in criminal proceedings about criminal offenses committed by criminal communities can be characterized as follows: 1) evidence in criminal proceedings about crimes committed by criminal communities is a type of evidence about a set of criminal offenses, the main “core” of which can be as crimes that are uniform in terms of criminal law characteristics and identical in terms of the elements of the criminal procedural subject of proof, in terms of forensic means and methods of identifying their sources; 2) since the elements of the systems that represent serial crimes are separate crimes committed by the suspect, and criminal proceedings were opened in connection with each of these crimes, which were later combined into one proceeding, proofs are carried out for each of them, because they have their own subject, this refers to the facts of the commission of criminal offenses, which are qualified according to the characteristics of the real population. Additional signs of a criminal community (criminal organization) are singled out, which to some extent confirm the presence of mandatory signs and testify to the increased level of criminal leadership: 1) the presence of an economic basis of a criminal community, which is determined by the presence of one or more business entities, which either directly belong to or are controlled by criminal groups, the availability of general funds at the disposal of the criminal community, which are used to ensure its criminal and illegal activities, the use of opportunities available to the criminal community for the legalization (laundering) of criminally obtained funds; 2) ethnic (national) composition of the criminal community, a certain “specialization” of criminal groups, the presence of interregional or transnational connections in the criminal environment. It is noted that the list of such additional features is not exhaustive and may be supplemented in connection with further improvement.