Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Esta publicación cientíca en formato digital es continuidad de la revista impresa
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ppi 201502ZU4645
Vol.39 N° 71
2021
Recibido el 15/08/2021 Aceptado el 04/11/2021
ISSN 0798- 1406 ~ De pó si to le gal pp 198502ZU132
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas
La re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas, es una pu bli ca ción aus pi cia da por el Ins ti tu to
de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co “Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che” (IEPDP) de la Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas de la Uni ver si dad del Zu lia.
En tre sus ob je ti vos fi gu ran: con tri buir con el pro gre so cien tí fi co de las Cien cias
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ti ga do res; es ti mu lar la in ves ti ga ción en es tas áreas del sa ber; y pro pi ciar la pre sen ta-
ción, dis cu sión y con fron ta ción de las ideas y avan ces cien tí fi cos con com pro mi so so cial.
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas apa re ce dos ve ces al año y pu bli ca tra ba jos ori gi na les con
avan ces o re sul ta dos de in ves ti ga ción en las áreas de Cien cia Po lí ti ca y De re cho Pú bli-
co, los cua les son so me ti dos a la con si de ra ción de ár bi tros ca li fi ca dos.
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Re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas. Av. Gua ji ra. Uni ver si dad del Zu lia. Nú cleo Hu ma nís ti co. Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas. Ins ti tu to de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co
“Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che”. Ma ra cai bo, Ve ne zue la. E- mail: cues tio nes po li ti cas@gmail.
com ~ loi chi ri nos por til lo@gmail.com. Te le fax: 58- 0261- 4127018.
Vol. 39, Nº 71 (2021), 289-307
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Suicide in the era of digital transformations
(crime investigation practices)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3971.14
Petro P. Pidykov *
Inna O. Roshchina **
Ivan V. Servetsky ***
Olena G. Bondarenko ****
Yevhen V. Bondarenko *****
Abstract
The objective of this article was to identify the characteristics of
crime investigation in the action of provoking someone’s suicide
on the Internet, identifying the main problems, characteristics
of the investigation and prospects for improvement of the crime
investigation methodology. For the development of the article the
following methods were used to meet the objectives: comparative
legal method, historical and comparative methods, which made it
possible to analyze the state, problems, and prospects for the development
of Ukrainian legislation in the eld of liability for causing someone to
commit suicide. The article also involves the method of systematization,
which provided the opportunity to study the genesis and changes in the
legislation that regulates the matter. It was concluded that there was a lack
of good practices and an eective system for investigating Internet crimes,
due to the peculiarities of the development and use of the Internet, as well
as rapid technological advancement. Comparing the experience of the EU
and the US, it was determined that preventive and educational functions
are the main ones in this area, helping to prevent relevant crimes.
Keywords: suicide; information society; digitization; digital crimes;
cybercrime.
* Doctor of Law Sciences, Senior Researcher, Unit for the Organization of Scientic Activity and
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, National Academy of Internal Aairs, 03035 Kyiv, Ukraine.
ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2025-668X
** Professor, Candidate of Juridical Sciences (Ph.D.), Associate Professor, Department of Constitutional
and Criminal Law, Institute of Law SHEI «Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University»,
03057, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3765-2091
*** Professor, Doctor of Law Sciences, Associate Professor, Educational and scientic institute of Law.
Prince Vladimir the Great Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, 03039, Kyiv, Ukraine.
ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5713-8911
**** Аssistant professor, Candidate of Juridical Sciences (Ph.D.), Educational and scientic institute of Law.
Prince Vladimir the Great Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, 03039 Kyiv, Ukraine.
ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8270-5316
***** Professor, Candidate of Juridical Sciences (Ph.D.), Educational and scientic institute of Law. Prince
Vladimir the Great Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, 03039 Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID
ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6527-6548
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Petro P. Pidykov, Inna O. Roshchina, Ivan V. Servetsky, Olena G. Bondarenko y Yevhen V. Bondarenko
Suicide in the era of digital transformations (crime investigation practices)
El suicidio en la era de las transformaciones digitales
(prácticas de investigación del delito)
Resumen
El objetivo de este artículo fue identicar las características de la
investigación de delitos en la acción de provocar el suicidio de alguien
en Internet, identicando los principales problemas, características de la
investigación y perspectivas de mejora de la metodología de investigación
del delito. Para el desarrollo del artículo se utilizaron los siguientes métodos
para cumplir los objetivos: método legal comparado, métodos históricos
y comparativos, que permitieron analizar el estado, los problemas y las
perspectivas de desarrollo de la legislación ucraniana en el campo de la
responsabilidad por causar que alguien se suicidara. El artículo también
involucra el método de sistematización, que brindó la oportunidad de
estudiar la génesis y los cambios en la legislación que regula la materia. Se
concluyó que existía una falta de buenas prácticas y un sistema ecaz para
investigar delitos en Internet debido a las peculiaridades del desarrollo y
uso de Internet, así como al rápido avance tecnológico. Comparando la
experiencia de la UE y EE. UU., se determinó que las funciones preventivas
y educativas son las principales en esta área, ayudan a prevenir delitos
relevantes.
Palabras clave: suicidio; sociedad de la información; digitalización;
delitos digitales; ciberdelito.
Introduction
The topicality of this work is due to the rapid economic and technological
development in the world, which is reected in the Ukrainian realities.
The development of information technology in the early 21st century has
led to the development of new opportunities and technological prospects
in various spheres of human life. This resulted in the emergence of new
serious world-class threats related to the current state of information and
communication technologies.
Suicide is the leading cause of death worldwide, and suicide attempts
that didn’t cause death, which occur much more frequently, are a major
source of disability, as well as social and economic burden.
One of the most pressing issues today is the liability for causing
somebody to commit suicide, which is a sensitive problem in the modern
world. Crimes against human life and health are considered to be among the
most dangerous in the world. That is why special attention is paid to the law
and practice of bringing people to justice for such crimes. The commission
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of such crimes with the help of information technology signicantly
complicates the possibility of nding and prosecuting the perpetrators.
Children and adolescents are most often aected, thus posing a serious
threat to the world community. This problem is multifaceted, and includes
legal, psychological, social, medical, educational aspects.
The legislation of Ukraine does not provide a single approach to the
denition and understanding of the essence of cybercrime or crimes in the
information eld. On the one hand, technology has signicantly expanded
human capabilities, while on the other, new types of crime have emerged,
which are possible only with the use of information technology.
Causing somebody to commit suicide or attempted causing somebody to
commit suicide are particularly dangerous and violating the Constitutional
right to life and health as the highest social value (Article 3 of the Constitution
of Ukraine) (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 1996). Article 120 of the Criminal
Code (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2001) was amended and supplemented
in 2018 because of the spread of attempted crime on the Internet. The basic
international act in the eld of combating crimes committed in cyberspace
for Ukraine is the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime of 23
November 2001, to which Ukraine acceded with reservations in 2005. This
Convention has been ratied in 58 countries, and it is an international
agreement under which the parties undertake to approximate domestic
criminal law provisions on cybercrime and create opportunities for the use
of eective means of their investigation (Samoilenko, 2020).
Modern innovative technologies have given the opportunity to
communicate with people from around the world, facilitated the search
for information, the impact on people. However, there is still no scientic
development of ways of their interaction and coexistence, they have no
direct interpersonal contact. The virtual image is not separated from the
person, the person does not see the other person directly, does not know the
whole truth about the behaviour of another person and his/her intentions
(Dragunov, 2020). There was a time of several waves of dangerous Internet
games, which included the so-called “death games”: Blue Whale, Wake Me
Up at Midnight, Silent House, and so on. The peculiarity of such games
was that the curators used neurolinguistic programming to inuence the
participants of these games, forcing them to carry out criminal and risky
orders of the curators, and ultimately, the last task is to commit suicide
(Dragunov, 2020).
Accordingly, the police faced a number of problems in investigating
such crimes, including the lack of legal elements of the crime, the diculty
of nding evidence, and the tracing of criminals. There were no methods of
investigating such crimes, which often turned out to be cross-border and
required international intervention. Thus, Ukraine established the Cyber
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Suicide in the era of digital transformations (crime investigation practices)
Police Department in 2015 to monitor and investigate cybercrimes. Over
time, there has been an improvement in the methods and techniques of
such investigations, primarily through the use of an integrated approach
and preventive measures. There are almost no facts of prosecution for
such crimes. In Ukraine, no sentences have been passed in such cases.
In the United States, there have been cases of both adults and minors
being prosecuted for causing somebody to commit suicide (Keryk, 2017).
Particular attention was paid to the fact that adolescents were the most
vulnerable group. Therefore, it was especially important to learn how to
prevent relevant crimes.
Accordingly, a number of studies were made regarding not only on the
legal side of such crimes, but also the social, psychological, technological,
medical and other aspects. As a result, it became clear that overcoming
crimes against life and health on the Internet is possible only through
preventive and consistent action. The need to prevent such crimes is
of great importance: through articial intelligence, which removes and
blocks death groups when they rst appear, through the work on education
and raising awareness of adolescents, as well as outreach to parents and
relatives (Keryk, 2017).
Criminals are often high-tech professional groups (Keryk, 2017), which
can cause even healthy, socially successful adults to commit suicide with the
help of psychological methods on the Internet. The causes of such crimes
include the desire to make money by selling suicide videos on DarkNet,
psychological and social experiments, and testing new psychological
methods of manipulating groups of people. Most often, such groups have
high-tech cross-border opportunities for concealment. Therefore, this issue
remains urgent for Ukrainian realities, and needs comprehensive research
and development.
That is why the problem of bringing to justice for such crimes is one of
the most controversial and discussed issues not only in Ukrainian realities,
but also in the world. There is a need to study foreign legislation and
experience in order to improve methods of suicide prevention, especially
among minors through social networks.
The nature of Internet threats has changed, became international with
the introduction of Internet technologies in everyday life, and especially
with the use of Web 2.0.
The study of the causes and criminal characteristics of causing somebody
to commit suicide on the Internet due to its urgency attracts the attention of
many world scholars. This global problem is studied from dierent angles:
• from the perspective of criminal law, which denes the main criteria
and features of bringing to justice for such crimes.
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• from the information and technical perspective to remove content
that poses a threat, as well as to facilitate the search for crimes.
• from the sociological perspective to determine the features of the
impact of relevant crimes on society.
• from medical and psychiatric perspective to determine medical
indicators, biochemical processes, and preconditions for human
suicide.
• from the psychological perspective to determine the preface and the
possibility of preventing such crimes.
• from the pedagogical perspective, which includes educational
function.
Relevant previous studies have shown that not only adolescents and
children, but also adults of any age and profession are at risk. In many
cases, causing somebody to commit suicide on the Internet is a professional
psychological work involving neurolinguistic programming practices,
which can aect anyone. The peculiarities of the Internet space and the
use of the latest technologies signicantly complicate the process of nding
criminals, obtaining evidence in the process of investigating such crimes
and bringing the perpetrators to justice. Moreover, criminals in many cases
operate in professional international groups using the latest technological
developments. As a result, there is a very low level of detection and
prosecution for relevant crimes both in Ukraine and around the world.
The problem is complicated by the level of technical provision and
communication support of national law enforcement agencies. Therefore,
the issue of prosecution for crimes committed on the Internet is one of the
most dicult issues in the world and, accordingly, remains one of the most
acute socio-legal problems of mankind. It is these factors that determine
the topicality of this article.
1. Methods and materials
This article involves modern general scientic and legal research
methods, among include the comparative legal method, which was
used to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the practice of prosecuting
crimes against life on the Internet. The comparative legal method allowed
analysing the practice and standards of the European Union and other
foreign countries in this area.
Historical and comparative methods were also used in the work to study
and analyze national and foreign scientic and practical sources in this
eld in the historical context. These methods allowed to analyze the current
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Suicide in the era of digital transformations (crime investigation practices)
state of the legal framework and practical developments in dierent periods
of development of criminal liability for crimes against life committed on
the Internet. The method of systematization is applied in the work, which
provided an opportunity to generalize, arrange and classify the studied
material. Thus, the lack of a systemic approach to fullling the tasks in the
legal regulation is identied as the main cause of the problem the lack of
good practice of investigation for causing somebody to commit suicide on
the Internet.
The study analysed the legislation of Ukraine in the eld of liability for
crimes against life committed with the help of innovative technologies,
namely the Constitution of Ukraine, the Criminal Code of Ukraine and
ratied international instruments in this area.
Ukrainian and foreign scientic and practical materials on the research
topic were also analysed. Among the studied sources, works were selected
that allowed to research the practice of investigating crimes against life
from a legal, medical, socio-educational and psychological perspectives.
It also identied weaknesses and approaches to studying the practice of
investigating cases of causing somebody to commit suicide in the context
of the digital transformation of society in Ukraine and around the world.
An analysis of the legislation of some EU and US countries in the eld of
responsibility for causing somebody to commit suicide on the Internet
was carried out. An analysis of international legislation and international
documents and acts in this area was conducted.
The research procedure included determining the relevance and
urgency of the chosen topic, analysis of scientic and practical methods
and approaches used to conduct research on the practice of investigation
into cases of causing somebody to commit suicide in the context of digital
transformation of society. The next step was a selection of materials for the
study on the basis of an integrated approach, which allowed a comprehensive
study of the subject and identifying the main problems and prospects of
this study. We also conducted a selection of materials on the territoriality
basis, which allowed determining the state of development of this problem
in dierent regions and studying the experience of individual countries.
On the basis of our research, we made conclusions and recommendations
for improving the practice of investigating cases of causing somebody to
commit suicide in the context of the digital transformation of society.
An important task is to create a complete system of investigation of
relevant crimes, considering the best technical, legal, socio-pedagogical
experience to form a comprehensive mechanism of liability for leading to
suicide in the context of digital transformation of society. The object of
research is public relations in the eld of investigation and prosecution for
causing somebody to commit suicide in the context of digital transformation
of society.
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2. Results
Analysis of the number of cases by year and statistics of detection of
such crimes showed that crimes on the Internet are latent, and therefore
the detection rate is very low. In the United States, suicide is one of the
leading causes of death among adolescents and young adults. According
to a 2016 study, suicide in the United States was the second leading cause
of death among adolescents and young people aged 14 to 24 (Kessler et al.,
2020).
According to ocial data from the World Health Organization, suicide
as the cause of death of children and adolescents ranks third (Kessler et al.,
2020). Moreover, Ukraine ranks one of the rst in Europe in the number
of suicides. In 2020 alone, 7,654 cases of suicide were recorded, including
123 suicides of adolescents. The urgency of the problem of investigating the
relevant crimes was determined by the fact that encroachment on human
life and health was identied as one of the most socially dangerous acts in
the world. The mechanism and dynamics of these crimes indicate that law
enforcement agencies and courts face signicant diculties in investigating
them.
The study showed a lack of a unied approach to terminology at the
legislative level. Ukraine still has no single approach to understanding such
crimes, and the terms “crimes with the use of information technology”,
“digital crimes” and so on are used. Such crimes include the crimes provided
for in Article 120 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: “causing somebody to
commit suicide”. First of all, the subject of such a crime is not homogeneous,
amorphous and is anonymous. The object is legal relations, but also the
honor and dignity of man. The objective aspect usually has technical means
as the subject of crime. The subjective aspect is presented in the form of
action of a certain person who has a direct intention and has the suicide of
another person as his/her motive (Merriott, 2016).
The implementation of Article 120 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine
was once complicated by the problem of obtaining evidence. According
to Guidelines No. 9 to the Regulations on the Procedure for Maintaining
the Unied Register of Pre-trial Investigations, such crimes are registered
in Ukraine as “committed with the use of high information technologies
and telecommunication networks”, that is the emphasis is on the means of
their commission — information technologies. Moreover, as the practice of
banned Internet resources — Blue Whale, Pink Fairies, Silent House, Wake
Me Up At 4:20, Sea of Whales, Milky Way, U19, F57 —showed, adolescents
and children are at a particular risk.
Such “death groups” rst became known in May 2016. The administrators
of these groups did not interact with the victims personally, but via the
Internet, that is the victims did not know their whereabouts and personal
data (Karppi, 2016).
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Suicide in the era of digital transformations (crime investigation practices)
In 2017, the Criminal Code dened four ways of causing somebody to
commit suicide or suicide attempt: ill-treatment, blackmail, coercion to
commit illegal acts or systemic humiliation of human dignity. Moreover,
the oender may not make a direct call to commit suicide, but act through
pressure, insults, and so on.
Analysis of scientic and practical criminological and medico-
psychological research has identied potential victims, namely vulnerable
groups, as well as factors that contribute to committing suicide. Not only
teenagers and young people, but also adults, the military, employees of
educational institutions, the police, etc. were at risk. Moreover, people
with psychiatric illnesses are particularly vulnerable groups. Studies
showed that society has a misconception that people with mental illness are
potentially dangerous and can commit a crime (Swanson et al., 2015). The
victimization of potential victims takes place, which has been little studied
in criminology.
Also, several medical scientists have concluded that certain human
diseases and sleep problems cause inammatory processes, which further
aect a person’s emotional state (Swanson et al., 2015; Institute of Medicine,
2006). The results showed that the assessment of sleep problems can be
useful for identifying risk groups. It is worth noting that such groups as
“4.20”, “Wake me up at midnight” were especially common among death
groups, which are designed to disrupt the human sleep cycle.
The causes of suicide can include both blackmail and incitement to crime,
as well as disorders ranging from depression to some viral and parasitic
infections, Covid-19 (Singh et al., 2021; Goyal, 2019). Environmental
problems, overpopulation of the planet, social pressure (Smail, 2002),
quarantine and job search problems (Smail, 2002), loss of livelihoods
(Shammi et al., 2021) are of great importance for increasing suicide rates.
Risk groups also include people with accumulated stress, in a state of moral
crisis (Shammi et al., 2021), with genetic variability, adverse life events
(Prasad Neupane, 2021; Chaudhuri et al., 2021). Vulnerable categories also
include farmers due to rising debt. In India, for example, 16,000 farmers
die each year from suicide, well above the rates of general population. The
widespread use of pesticides is among the reasons (Onwona Kwakye et
al., 2019). US studies showed that the suicide rate among police ocers is
much higher than among the general population (Schweitzer Dixon, 2021).
Therefore, it is necessary to purposefully involve and train sta to work
with suicide prevention.
In 2021, the neuroimmunology of suicide is actively developing
(Sosnina, 2017). Moreover, the modern world faces new risks and threats
during a pandemic, especially when the Internet becomes the main source
of communication. Thus, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has fostered
communications and increased human vulnerability.
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There has also been increased alcohol use, domestic violence and child
abuse during a pandemic, potentially increasing vulnerability to suicide.
Given the fact that the potential for increasing the number of suicides
persists, the issue of suicide prevention remains urgent and important
(Hari Hara et al., 2021).
Analysis of methods and approaches to committing relevant crimes
showed that causing somebody to commit suicide on the Internet is realized
mainly by a psychological impact on a person through the display of photos
and videos, blackmail, intimidation, incitement to commit certain acts, up
to suicide, even if a person does not want it, etc. (Rec, 2020). Moreover,
it should be noted that when intentionally causing somebody to commit
suicide, criminals deliberately seek out vulnerable people who can easily
fall under their inuence.
So, the problem of causing somebody to commit suicide in the age of
digital transformations is a complex problem and cannot be solved by legal
science alone.
The main means of inuence are specially selected verbal and nonverbal
language programmes, the assimilation of the content of which helps to
change a person’s beliefs, views and perceptions. In the so-called “death
groups”, reprogramming is conducted by the curator of these groups, who
communicates with the members of the groups in person and assigns them
tasks.
The following stages of communication are identied in this process:
- search and recruitment of participants.
- involvement in the group.
- involvement in rules and culture, among which the ban on telling
adults is important.
- propaganda and cult of death.
- threats or control over the participant, with the requirement to
commit suicide.
The methods of causing somebody to commit suicide include
cyberbullying, which is the persecution of a person for various reasons
(Schweitzer Dixon, 2021).
Cyberbullying can be seen as a fragment of invective communication,
which regulates the relationship between speech participants to the
individual through aggressive verbal and nonverbal actions aimed at
reducing social status (Daineka, 2013), through harassment and bullying
or other actions that provoke the emergence and intensication of suicidal
thoughts in victims (Rec, 2020).
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Suicide in the era of digital transformations (crime investigation practices)
According to the Cyber Security Forum 2018 (CSF, 2018), 48% of
adolescents aged 14-17 have been blackmailed, 46% of adolescents have
witnessed aggressive online behaviour, and 44% have received aggressive
messages (Myskevych, 2019). According to various data, about 67% of
children in Ukraine have experienced bullying among peers. The most
common causes of bullying by peers are appearance, beliefs and potentially
victimized behaviour, communication) (Myskevych, 2019).
As a response, Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Article 120 of the
Criminal Code of Ukraine on Establishing Criminal Liability for Assisting
in Suicide” was adopted on February 8, 2018. According to this Law, the
act remained unchanged — causing somebody to commit suicide or suicide
attempt, but the methods of committing this act have expanded. The
legislator was forced to expand the content of the provision of Article 120
of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, namely, to expand the disposition of the
article to the responsibility for causing somebody to commit suicide and
suicide attempt.
Such crimes are in most cases committed by highly organized professional
criminal groups consisting of specialists in psychological, technical, and
medical elds. Organizers of digital crimes are often psychologists who aim
to either test technology to inuence people at a distance or earn money by
reselling suicide videos. They use modern technologies, as well as methods
of psychology and neurolinguistic programming to inuence potentially
vulnerable people. Performers have a good understanding of the psychology
of the adolescent and using it, easily gain condence of the potential victim.
There is also the problem of establishing a causal link between suicide
and the actions of criminals. The prosecution practice in this area is very
limited. The experience of other countries also shows rather limited results
of investigations.
For example, in Australia, inducing a person to commit suicide is a
crime. A crime will be recognized if incitement or counselling has resulted
in another person attempting suicide (McGorrery and McMahon, 2019).
Penalties for incitement to suicide vary by territorial jurisdiction. The
maximum penalty is 5 years of imprisonment in New Wales, 10 years — in
the Australian capital, life imprisonment in Queensland and the Northern
Territory, and in South Australia the punishment is applied if the suicide
attempt was successful (14 years) or unsuccessful (8 years) (McGorrery
and McMahon, 2019). However, there is no evidence that anyone has ever
been convicted or charged with any of these crimes of inducing a person to
commit suicide in Australia.
As in Ukraine, the problem is to establish a causal link in such cases.
In Britain, causing somebody to commit suicide is classied as murder.
On 29 April 2002, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg
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delivered its judgment in Pretty v. The United Kingdom, which found that
the prosecution for causing somebody to commit suicide provided for
in the 1961 UK Suicide Act did not violate fundamental human rights as
enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms. According to Section 2 of the 1961UK Suicide Act, “a person who
assists, induces, advises or arranges another person’s suicide, or another
person’s attempt to commit suicide, shall be liable to imprisonment for a
term not exceeding 14 years”.
According to EU law, each country must decide for itself how to prosecute
such crimes. In general, causing somebody to commit suicide has been
decriminalized. However, a number of states have retained the relevant
rules. Article 301 of the Greek Criminal Code provides for punishment
for “participation in suicide”, that is aiding or abetting suicide (Steering
Committee on Bioethics, 2003).
Swiss law also criminalizes incitement, aiding and abetting a person
who assists in someone’s suicide “for selsh motives” (Steering Committee
on Bioethics, 2003). There are euthanasia and abetting suicide. Articles
212, 213 and 323c of the German Criminal Code also provide for criminal
liability for aiding and abetting suicide (Steering Committee on Bioethics,
2003).
Causing somebody to commit suicide is criminalized in some US states
and there are successful examples of prosecution for such crimes. However,
this norm conicts with the First Amendment to the US Constitution
(Binder and Chiesa, 2019).
In 2017, a Massachusetts court in the United States convicted Michelle
Carter of involuntary manslaughter for abetting suicide of Conrad Roy
by text message, but sentenced her to only 15 months of prison. Under
Massachusetts law, the perpetrator who causes death of another person is
found guilty of murder and is liable to life imprisonment.
Also, California Penal Code No. 401 provides liability for causing
somebody to commit suicide punishable by up to 3 years in prison (Sierra,
2020).
Ukraine has no methodology for investigating cybercrime and has
a problem of lack of specialization of investigators at the regional level.
Prosecution of crimes committed in cyberspace is entrusted to inexperienced
investigators, which leads to incomplete investigations, the inability to
establish the composition of the criminal group. According to the materials
analyzed in more than 80% of criminal proceedings, the investigation found
that unidentied persons were involved in the crime (Samoilenko, 2020).
Therefore, there was a question of speed and eciency of involvement
of specialists in the relevant elds to full the tasks set by the investigation.
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The issue of involving such specialists in the personnel reserve of law
enforcement agencies is relevant. The problem of criminal prosecution for
causing somebody to commit suicide in the context of digital transformation
is international and reects the socio-educational problems of the modern
world.
As a result of identifying a number of problematic aspects, a number
of recommendations were developed at the international level, mainly
based on preventive principles, namely education and raising awareness of
children and adults, search and removal of illegal content, methodological
work consisting of: work with at-risk groups and relatives; monitoring of
root causes; identication of content that poses a threat to society; technical
development that will allow tracking and preventing relevant crimes.
The WHO concept of suicide prevention — Live Life — recommends
the following eective and evidence-based measures: restricting access
to means of suicide; interaction with mass media; development of social
and emotional life skills in adolescents; early detection, examination,
management of persons suering from suicidal behaviors. A successful
example is the experience of Finland, which was one of the rst countries
to develop a national programme for the prevention of suicide among
adolescents. The suicide rate in the country has dropped by 30% in ten
years.
In order to solve the problem of suicide among children and adolescents,
it is also necessary to regulate the safety of minors on the Internet, in
particular, to establish control over access to the network in computer
rooms and libraries.
On the other hand, India, where suicides are of religious and traditional
origin, Article 21 of the Indian Constitution says that “no one shall be
deprived of life or personal liberty except as provided by law”, attempted
to decriminalize crimes against life in 2014. The victim of a crime is
determined by the oender. Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code makes
it clear that anyone who attempts to commit suicide and makes any act
of committing such an oense is punishable by a simple imprisonment of
up to one year or a ne (Ranjan et al., 2014). Law enforcement agencies
and non-governmental organizations, including the Cybercrime Center,
which is part of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, play an
important role in preventing suicide among minors in the United States.
The main tasks of the Cybercrime Center are ghting against Internet
crimes; information and technical support for the investigation of such
crimes; training and technical support. The US Secret Service also plays a
role in preventing and investigating high-tech crimes.
US regional computer forensics laboratories are particularly important
in the context of the study. Their main tasks are the collection and analysis
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of digital crime scene data; objective search and review of digital evidence;
technical assistance to law enforcement agencies during the investigation
of cybercrime; recovery of damaged digital information, etc. (Kessler et al.,
2020). The United States have the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention
of the US Department of Health and Human Services (Breux and Boccio,
2019), which advocates greater involvement of the public and private
sectors in suicide prevention initiatives among young people. The education
system has been recognized as a logical place to continue suicide prevention
eorts, and schools have taken on a greater role as leaders in identifying,
soliciting, and assisting young people.
The experience of Germany is also valuable. In particular, there are
non-governmental organizations in this country that provide protection for
minors on the Internet. One such association is the non-prot organization
Jugendschutz.net, which, together with the State Commission for the
Protection of Minors in the Media and the German Society for Suicide
Prevention, takes measures to prevent suicide. These organizations search
for so-called “suicide forums” on the Internet, where suicides communicate,
and take steps to remove content, educate and raise awareness of young
people.
Germany and Austria have The Ripple Eect programme for suicide
prevention, which has developed guidelines, support and descriptions of
the experiences of people who have had unsuccessful suicide attempts
(Dreier et al., 2021).
The participation of the international community and organizations in
the implementation of a consistent policy to prevent digital crime is critical.
For example, in 2019 there was an improvement in the way Facebook
processes information. Articial intelligence detects dangerous content,
and make actions on potentially harmful content. From April to June 2019,
Facebook took steps to remove more than 1.5 million suicide content, and
more than 95% of it was detected by the time users reported it.
The Department of Cyberpolice of Ukraine is taking measures to prevent
causing minors to commit suicide of minors on the Internet. They identied
434 “death groups”, of which 102 were blocked.
As of 2021, signicant progress has been made in the development
of suicide prevention and treatment strategies (Swanson et al., 2015).
Scientists have concluded that the prevention and investigation of relevant
crimes requires coverage of phenomena such as suicide with the involvement
of dierent scientic approaches and areas of research (Prasad Neupane,
2021). Unsatisfactory results of law enforcement reform led to the fact that
the technical arsenal of criminals often exceeds the level of means to combat
them, necessitates the development of innovative principles to provide the
activities of relevant bodies (Keryk, 2017). The investigation of such crimes
can be optimized by:
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Suicide in the era of digital transformations (crime investigation practices)
• supplementing Article 120 of the Criminal Code with a note in which
to provide the conceptual framework.
• introduction of new tactical operations, identication of criminals
and their personal data.
• improvement of technologies.
• development for the accumulation of special knowledge in the
investigation of crimes committed in cyberspace.
• involvement of specialists and experts for direct technical assistance
during procedural actions, etc.
3. Discussion
The complexity of the investigation is due to the peculiarities of the
Internet, the vulnerability of wireless access and the use of proxy servers,
which greatly complicates the detection of criminals. Therefore, such crimes
remain one of the most dangerous. It is dicult to prove involvement and
inuence on human consciousness. Moreover, customers, organizers may
be in another country, which complicates their search and prosecution.
There are many cases when the organizers of groups remain at large (Fazel
and Runeson, 2020). Therefore, when investigating crimes in cyberspace, it
is rst necessary to refer to the rules of international law and international
treaties.
So, it was concluded that there is no eective mechanism for
prosecuting individuals for committing a crime against life on the Internet.
Law enforcement agencies investigating such crimes have lengthy and
complicated procedures for accessing the assistance of focused specialists.
Research in this area were chaotic, the adoption of legislation was
fragmentary, resulting in the failure to build a single integrated management
system or its legal mechanism. There are no proper material and technical
resources, and the level of support does not allow for the eective
implementation of ever-changing technologies. Thus, the level of scientic
and technical background and the involvement of focused specialists in the
bodies investigating such crimes are usually insucient for an eective
investigation.
There is also an unresolved issue of ownership of the evidence base and
proof of the causal link between the perpetrator’s actions and the victim’s
death. In 2015, the Cyberpolice Department was established in Ukraine on
the basis of Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers “On the Establishment
of the Territorial Body of the National Police” No. 831of October 13, 2015.
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This Department participates in the detection of various crimes committed
through telecommunications networks and technologies.
To prevent and combat such crimes, it is necessary to pursue a
comprehensive system of measures designed not only to prosecute
criminals, but also to prevent such crimes and even suicide attempts
where possible. Therefore, preventive pedagogical and psychological work
with young people is important. By establishing trust with adolescents,
establishing contact, it is possible to detect criminal groups at an early stage
and prevent crime, gather evidence and bring the perpetrators to justice
for intending to commit a crime. There are a number of recommendations
In Ukraine for identifying and preventing the impact of “death groups” on
young people (State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine, 2020).
In general, the practice of prosecuting in this area is very limited. Thus,
the complexity of the investigation of the relevant crimes has determined
the priority of preventive measures. They include education of children and
adults, search and removal of illegal content, methodical work.
Conclusion
As a result of the study, we can conclude about the relevance of this
problem in Ukraine and the world. After all, crimes against life pose
an increased social threat. The urgency of solving this problem is also
determined by the fact that the suicide rate in the world is quite high, and the
number of crimes is growing with the expansion of innovative technologies.
Accordingly, there are a number of diculties that slow down the
process of investigating crimes under Article 120 of the Criminal Code of
Ukraine, including the lack of proper methodology, facilities, experience
of investigation, the cross-border nature of such crimes. The complexity
of detecting, stopping and investigating cybercrime is largely due to the
electronic form of information. Besides, the detection, cessation and
investigation of cybercrime requires appropriate material and technical
resources, which is a dicult issue in Ukrainian realities.
Based on the results, we can draw conclusions about the relevance and
urgency of this problem, the lack of a unied approach to the conceptual
framework. There are also no eective mechanisms for obtaining evidence,
as well as nding and prosecuting perpetrators.
The level of equipment and focused training of specialists is insucient,
especially in comparison with highly equipped criminal groups. Therefore,
we have developed recommendations that include, rst of all, preventive
and precautionary measures. The experience of foreign countries has shown
their focus on educational activities in the educational process, working
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Suicide in the era of digital transformations (crime investigation practices)
with psychologists, etc. An important part is the psychological work to
establish trust between parents and children, which allows us to quickly
identify potential victims and prevent such crimes at the rst attempt to
inuence a person for causing him/her to commit suicide.
Awareness-raising is important for children, adolescents, and adults
alike. We also recommend the introduction and provision of additional
functions for the position of psychologist in educational institutions,
specialized law enforcement agencies. Professional psychologists can not
only conduct initial and explanatory work, but also identify potential victims
in a timely manner and help prevent crime and track down a criminal group.
It is important for the specialized law enforcement agencies to improve
the function of researching risky sources and content on the Internet,
to remove it in advance. Therefore, it is recommended to introduce and
improve information technology, expand the technical resources of
departments. Specialists in medicine, psychology, psychiatry, and social
sciences, etc. need to be involved on a regular basis and as needed. Causing
somebody to commit suicide through the use of digital technologies is a
multifactorial phenomenon, so it requires comprehensive consideration by
legal science, sociology and psychology.
The root causes of the practice of criminal prosecution for causing
somebody to commit suicide in the context of the digital transformation
of society is the lack of a consistent integrated approach in the work of law
enforcement agencies. To achieve an eective result, it is possible to create
an eective mechanism for combating crimes on the Internet. Therefore,
it is important to develop a comprehensive methodology for detecting
and investigating such crimes. Moreover, such conditions contributed to
signicant problems in the legal regulation and practice of application, and
proper communication has not been established between the responsible
subjects.
Prospects for further research are methodological approaches to the
denition of terminology, as well as the search for and conrmation of the
evidence base in crimes against life committed with the help of information
technology.
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