The dissertation investigates a set of theoretical and practical problems of crime prevention in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and substantiates a number of provisions and conclusions that are new in conceptual terms and important for legal science, as well as the activities of law enforcement agencies.
The paper provides a systematic analysis of the state of crime research in the Armed Forces and its methodological tools, which not only showed that Ukraine’s defense capabilities, reform of its Armed Forces and other military formations during Ukraine’s independence were unfortunately not in combat readiness, only in the process of modernization., and in some parts and destruction in general, but also made it possible to establish the following stages of institutionalization of the Armed Forces:
1) 1991–1994 (interstate transfer of personnel);
2) 1994–1997 (obtaining the status of a nuclear-free state);
3) 1997–2003 (establishment of a system of sanctions to maintain norms and rules);
4) 2003–2014 (processes of latent dysfunction);
5) 2014 and incl. (restoration of dysfunction of the Armed
Forces).
It is scientifically proven that crime at different stages of the functioning of the Armed Forces is associated with: the dissolution of the unified army of the USSR; improper accounting of the interdependence of different types of troops, communications, systems, the emergence of informal relations between servicemen, etc., in connection with which these processes have the most negative impact on the criminogenic situation among servicemen.
The main features of crime in the Armed Forces are: first, the number of criminal offenses committed by servicemen, which coincides with the trend of crime dynamics in the country as a whole; secondly, the increase in latent criminal offenses in the Armed Forces, especially after the introduction of anti-terrorist operation and environmental protection; thirdly, improper social and legal control by the leadership of the Armed Forces over this type of crime; and fourth, the impact on crime in the Armed Forces of the determinants that characterize it outside the Armed Forces.
Insufficient level of research on the problems of crime in the Armed Forces, the validity of measures to prevent it in military units has an extremely negative impact on the functioning of the Armed Forces and their performance of state tasks. The urgency of the problem is also growing due to the long-standing need to improve regulations governing the prevention of crime in the Armed Forces. Our analysis of the functioning of the Armed Forces in recent years has shown that the defined strategy of national security and defense, unfortunately, not in full scientifically sound and practical sense provides not only compliance with the security sector of Ukraine, but also the needs of society and its security. material and technical base, armaments, military equipment, low level of support and training of servicemen for the Armed Forces, which ultimately jeopardizes the ability of them to perform state defense tasks.
Based on the analysis of the positions of scientists and the norms of current legislation, the author’s definition of crime in the Armed Forces of Ukraine is proposed.
The study of foreign experience of many countries around the world in preventing military crime has shown the feasibility, effectiveness and necessity of using a scientific and technical device in the Armed Forces – a polygraph, which can be considered as one of the measures to prevent military crime and a means to effectively reduce committing criminal offenses.
The study of the state and tendencies of committing criminal offenses in the Armed Forces of Ukraine has shown a sharp increase in recent years in the number of criminal offenses committed in the Armed Forces, and especially serious crimes. Thus, in 2020 the number of committed military criminal offenses amounted to 4,055 (87% of them serious crimes), which is 14% more than in 2019, when their number was 3,616 (82% of them serious crimes). Instead, the level of crimes of medium gravity has shown a downward trend. The peak of such crimes committed in the Armed Forces fell on 2014 (75% of the total number of crimes committed in the Armed Forces).
