The dissertation solves a scientific task, which was to identify, generalize and solve problems related to the improvement of criminal law and criminological principles of preventing pimping and involving a person in prostitution, by providing proposals and recommendations aimed at improving national criminal legislation and criminological practice in this area.
It has been established that pimping should be understood as a complex criminally unlawful activity of a person, which consists in the selection of female and/or male persons for the provision of sexual services, as well as the implementation of any organizational and managerial functions (contacting clients, physical and medical protection, development of a schedule and list of services, etc.) related to the activities of these persons. Thus, the main actions of a pimp are: 1) selection of persons who will provide sexual services, coordination of the list of services; 2) search and initial contact with clients, establishment of remuneration; 3) provision of transportation to the client or a residential area suitable for the provision of sexual services; 4) ensuring the personal safety of the person providing sexual services; 5) provision of medical care to the person providing sexual services.
It is indicated that the main basis for criminalizing pimping or involving a person in prostitution is the state's fulfillment of international legal obligations, which was especially relevant in conditions of martial law. The grounds for criminalizing such an act are traditional: a criminal offense provided for in Art. 303 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is socially dangerous, relatively widespread (with unstable dynamics); prostitution and pimping are acts prohibited by international legal documents, which also indicates the need for a criminal law guarantee to protect social relations in the sphere of sexual morality.
It was stated that victimological measures to prevent a criminal offense under Article 303 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine should include: 1) expanding the list of victims by defining qualifying and especially qualifying signs of committing such an act against pregnant women, the elderly and persons with disabilities; 2) standardizing the grounds, conditions and procedure for providing social rehabilitation services to persons who have been involved in prostitution; 3) creating anonymous groups and allocating premises for anonymous communication with persons who forcibly provide paid sexual services for the purpose of psychological and social support, as well as potentially exposing the activities of organized groups and criminal organizations.
It is indicated that for Ukrainian criminological practice, conducting special operations to identify criminal offenses related to pimping and involving persons in prostitution in cyberspace can be an effective way to reduce the number of such socially dangerous acts. It can also be considered advisable to add to Art. 303 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the qualifying feature is the commission of such an act using information and telecommunications systems or technologies, which will provide an opportunity to strengthen criminal liability for such criminal offenses.
Amendments and additions to the national criminal legislation are proposed in terms of criminal liability for pimping or involving a person in prostitution and areas for improving criminological practice in this area, namely: 1) to supplement the Criminal Code of Ukraine, Article 303-1, which provides for criminal liability for involving a child in prostitution; 2) to expand the criminal law measures applied to legal entities, in particular, to determine the possibility of applying temporary restrictions on the activities of a legal entity and temporary restrictions on obtaining rights and/or benefits to persons who have committed a criminal offense provided for in Article 303 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in relation to children; 3) to decriminalize the criminal offense provided for in Article 302 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and to criminalize the creation or maintenance of places of prostitution and pimping as forms of implementation of the objective side of the criminal offense provided for in Article 303 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; 4) criminalize the purchase and facilitation of paid sexual services; 5) supplement Part 2 of Article 183 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine with an indication that the investigating judge, the court, when issuing a ruling on the application of a preventive measure in the form of detention, taking into account the grounds and circumstances provided for in Articles 177 and 178 of this Code, has the right not to determine the amount of bail in criminal proceedings: regarding a crime related to sexual violence and sexual exploitation of a person.
