The thesis is devoted to the criminological analysis of professional victimization in Ukraine and the development of effective measures of its prevention. On the basis of the official statistical data and the results of the empirical study, the rate, dynamics and structure of the professional victimization as the process are characterized. Such indicators as kind of injury, time and place of crime against a professional, latency have been analyzed.
Based on the results of the empirical research, socio-demographic, criminal-legal, socio-role and moral-psychological characteristics have been analyzed. A generalized portrait of a subject of professional victimization is proposed. Such subject can be described as a man aged 20 to 40, with higher education, married, usually a law enforcement officer, characterized by a neutral attitude to the offender, with whom before a crime has been committed, he had a contact in connection with the performance of his professional duties. A classification of subjects of professional victimization according to the criteria of publicity of the profession and the presence of professional risk has been proposed.
The general (mass), group (special) and individual levels are distinguished. These three levels create a kind of pyramid, which is based on all the factors that are an objective threat to harm public relations, which are under the criminal law protection of the state.
Determinants of the general or mass level of victimization are the factors, whose mechanism of influence on relation to any person is the same both: direction and strength of “defeat”. The next (middle) level of the pyramid of determinants of victimization, which is narrowing upwards, is a group of factors, which already more objectively explains the transformation of a group of persons into victims of crime in the context of their specific characteristics, and most importantly – the nature and type of their employment. They are called a group (mass) victimization. It is emphasized that it is at the level of mass victimization the distinction between the group of determinants, which are inherent to the “emergence” of a generalized victim of the mass level and the victimization factors that are characterized the acquiring of the appropriate formal (procedural) and factual status of the groups of victims, selected according to certain criteria, is beginning. At the top of the imaginary pyramid we can highlight the level of determinants of professional victimization, which reveals the individual side of the whole process of turning a particular person into a victim of crime.
Professional victimization can be understood as various processes, phenomena and events that occur at the general social, group and individual levels, which together contribute to the formation of a sign of victimhood of a person through his professional affiliation.
It is determined that the method of devictimization in the context of prevention of professional victimization should be considered as a generalized name for a set of methods of crime prevention aimed at reducing the chances of committing crimes against persons who have a high risk of potential victimization.
The general characteristic of prevention of professional victimization in Ukraine as a separate element of prevention of criminal offenses has been analyzed.
