Julio-Diciembre 2015

Vol. 5 No. 2

Julio-septiembre 2024

Vol. 14 No. 2

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Interacción y Perspectiva Dep. Legal pp 201002Z43506

Revista de Trabajo Social ISSN 2244-808X

Vol. 14 N

Julio-septiembre

ARTÍCULO DE INVESTIGACIÓN

Medidas criminológicas especiales para prevenir amenazas o violencia contra

agentes del orden público

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10909864

Yrii Kozar*, Yurii Krychun**, Yaroslav Stupnyk***y Victor Tkachuk ****

Resumen

La investigación está dedicada a las peculiaridades del funcionamiento de métodos

criminológicos especiales para evitar amenazas o violencia por parte de los agentes del

orden. Hay consenso en que el problema de la seguridad física, psicológica y moral de

los funcionarios encargados de hacer cumplir la ley, cuya actividad profesional está

prácticamente siempre asociada a un riesgo para la salud y la vida, se considera

correctamente en el contexto amplio de la protección social (o sociojurídica). Se está

llevando a cabo una transferencia de enfoques para mejorar el nivel de educación y

capacitación profesional de los agentes del orden mediante la formación de

profesionales, paramédicos del ejército con conocimientos jurídicos actuales y una

cultura jurídica y profesional, disciplina de servicio y comportamiento legal. Es

importante señalar que a los agentes del orden se les debe dar no menos respeto que

el entrenamiento de salud y combate. Se confirma que con la ayuda de investigaciones

criminológicas operativas es posible no sólo acelerar la adquisición de conocimientos

objetivos sobre las tendencias dinámicas de la malignidad, sino también comprender

mejor la naturaleza de los casos y procesos penales, sin ninguna confusión. por qué

nacieron o se desarrollaron sus mentes.

Palabras clave: Organismos encargados de hacer cumplir la ley, aplicación de la ley,

disciplina, protección social, seguridad del personal, educación profesional, conciencia

jurídica.

Abstract

Special criminological measures to prevent threats or violence against law

enforcement officers

The study is devoted to the peculiarities of application of special criminological measures

to prevent threats or violence against law enforcement officers. It is emphasized that

the issue of physical, psychological and moral security of law enforcement officers, whose

professional activities are almost always associated with a risk to health and life, is

rightly considered in the broad context of social (or socio-legal) security. The author

provides a list of measures which should be applied to improve the level of professional

education and training of law enforcement officers with a view to forming professionals

with appropriate legal awareness and legal and professional culture, official discipline

and lawful behavior. It is noted that the safety of law enforcement officers should be

given no less attention than health and combat training. It is argued that with the help

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of operational criminological research, it is possible not only to accelerate the acquisition

of objective knowledge about the dynamic trends of crime, but also to better understand

the nature of criminal phenomena and processes, the immediate causes and conditions

of their origin and development.

Keywords: Law enforcement agencies, offenses, discipline, social protection, staffing,

professional education, legal awareness.

Recibido: 26/12/2023 Aceptado: 12/02/2024

* Luhunsk State Medical University, Rivne, Ukraine. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6424-6419 E-mail:

kozar.yurii@ukr.net

** Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State University, Ukraine. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-

9441-3003 E mail: y.a.krychun@cuspu.edu.ua

*** Uzhhorod National University, Uzhgorod, Ukraine. ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8024-9735 E-

mail: yaroslav.stupnik@uzhnu.edu.ua

**** Rivne Institute of the Kyiv University of Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. ORCID

ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9537-6056 E-mail: viktor_tkachyk@ukr.net

1. Introduction

External threats and violence directed at law enforcement officers are related to

the peculiarities of their professional functions. In particular, it is often caused by the

reaction of criminals to law enforcement activities, which may include detention of

criminals, investigation of crimes and other measures. As a result, law enforcement

officers may be vulnerable to aggression and violence as a result of their duties.

To prevent violent attacks on law enforcement officials, it is important to develop

and implement specific criminological measures and strategies. These measures may

include improving the safety and security of law enforcement officers in the performance

of their duties, psychological training and support, and the study and analysis of factors

that lead to violence against law enforcement officers. Understanding the victimization

component is an important part of these measures, as it helps to understand how law

enforcement officials can become victims of violence and threats and how they can be

protected.

2. Analysis of recent research and publications

Among the priority tasks of reforming modern European-style states is the

creation of an effective system of law enforcement agencies, and an important

component of this system is to guarantee a high level of protection of the rights and

freedoms of law enforcement officers. The effectiveness of law enforcement agencies

largely depends on the degree of protection of the rights and freedoms of their

employees. Given the functions they perform, this level must be extremely high. To this

end, the legislation on criminal liability provides for a system of criminal law restrictions

aimed at strengthening the protection of law enforcement officers. A number of

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researchers have devoted their scientific works to this issue. In particular, V. Belenok

(2021) devoted his work to solving complex theoretical and practical problems related

to the criminal law and criminological characterization of threats or violence against a

law enforcement officer and the development of scientifically based recommendations

for preventing these criminal offenses, their termination and proper qualification on this

basis. Y. Voloshyna (2018) analyzed the essence of criminological and special prevention

of threats of physical violence and made an attempt to consider the essence and explore

such concepts as "crime prevention", "threat of physical violence", "special criminological

prevention", "criminological prevention", "crime prevention", "crime prevention" and

"crime suppression". Y. Gladkova (2014) examined various aspects of the current state

of prevention of crimes committed against law enforcement officers. She analyzed the

organization and legal regulation of prevention of such crimes, including special

(criminological) and individual crime prevention, as well as victimization prevention. The

author proposed various measures to significantly improve certain aspects of the

activities of entities involved in crime prevention in general.

A. Myroshnychenko (2018) conducted a comprehensive analysis of the

criminological aspects of revenge as a motive for committing crimes against law

enforcement officers and judges. At the same time, the issue of special criminological

measures to prevent threats or violence against law enforcement officers remains open

and requires further research in this area.

The purpose of the study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the system of

special criminological measures to prevent threats or violence against law enforcement

officers

3. Results and discussion

The problem of physical, psychological and moral security of law enforcement

officers, whose professional activities almost always involve a risk to health and life, is

rightly considered in the broad context of social (or socio-legal) security. Thus, the most

important thing is stated: it is necessary, first of all, to resolve the issue of social

protection of law enforcement officers; to organize proper conditions for their

professional activity; to ensure social optimism. This will facilitate the selection of

personnel on a truly competitive basis, rather than being content with the mechanical

registration of applicants, which is often the case when forming the staffing of the law

enforcement system. It is the careful selection of personnel that will ensure the

necessary quality of law enforcement personnel. This will directly affect the efficiency

and effectiveness of professional work. In the light of crime prevention and

counteraction, it is necessary to resolutely return to the problems of social protection of

law enforcement officers as the social basis for ensuring law and order and legality. Thus,

the social protection of these employees, including in terms of the primary preventive

measure, includes: a) guaranteeing their rights to security; b) material and health care

for law enforcement officers and their families; c) real criminal law protection against

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life and health hazards; d) sufficient pension provision and state insurance (Tanko,

2015).

Lack of proper social protection of law enforcement officers, economic and

logistical problems make law enforcement unattractive not only for many citizens, but

also for the officers themselves, which causes a significant outflow of highly qualified

personnel, a shortage of candidates for service and, as a result, staff instability. The

decline in the prestige of the service has become a factor that is currently causing the

chronic inability of HR departments to retain young professionals in the service. The lack

of competition for vacant positions, which is the result of citizens' reaction to the social

disorganization of the law enforcement system, forces us to solve personnel problems,

often ignoring the qualitative characteristics of candidates for service. At the same time,

we are currently facing gaps in regulatory frameworks, including legal and social

conditions, which leads to uncertainty of some law enforcement officers about their

future, which leads to a state of professional apathy.

A significant preventive potential for threats or direct acts of violence against law

enforcement officers is provided by an adequate level of their professional training, which

allows them to avoid some conflict situations with offenders and to minimize the risk of

those that could not be avoided. Studies confirm that the following strategies can be

used to improve the level of professional education and training of law enforcement

officers in order to create professionals with appropriate legal awareness and legal and

professional culture, service discipline and lawful behavior:

a) Development of deontological legal consciousness of law enforcement officers,

which consists in forming beliefs about the importance of observing the law for

the normal functioning of society, emphasizing the need to choose lawful ways of

behavior and intensifying official activities.

b) Expansion of cultural background and formation of legal outlook, taking into

account international law and achievements of world legal science.

c) Introducing the priority of universal values related to human and civil rights and

freedoms, including training in service ethics, human rights and prevention of

violations in service activities.

d) Ensuring a high level of legal knowledge and formation of relevant beliefs and

feelings, development of legal thinking and will for effective use of law in official

activities.

e) Development of skills of qualitative application of law in different situations,

including strategy, tactics, methods and techniques.

f) Supporting the development of talents, aptitudes and inclinations in accordance

with the specifics of law enforcement.

g) Improving communication skills of employees and promoting active cooperation,

collective responsibility and creativity in the performance of official duties.

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h) Improvement of moral and psychological training to increase resistance to stress

and difficulties, as well as to increase the level of stress resistance and the ability

to overcome the negative effects of stress (Tanko, 2015).

It should be borne in mind that the consideration of conflict interactions that occur

or may occur during the work between law enforcement officers and the behavior of

individual citizens is very specific for both law enforcement officers (normative and

disciplinary regulation) and citizens (frankly subjective vision), when each party often

takes into account only "its" personally defined situational facet, not sufficiently

perceiving the opposite. Unfortunately, this interaction is not always to the liking of those

who interact in a totalitarian manner, and therefore one of the most important tasks of

any conflict is to test a person's ability to remain a person under any circumstances It is

from this perspective that it is advisable to consider the problem of ethics of relations

between law enforcement officers and the public. Practice shows that often the

professional ethics of law enforcement officers can prevent an impending offense or

resolve a conflict that has already begun. However, significant difficulties in

implementing the principle of ethics are caused by the nervousness, lack of restraint,

and straightforwardness of some law enforcement officers or their conscious or

subconscious admiration for the sense of power, which, in the end, is the low level of

their professional and general psychological stability.

Thus, ensuring the ability of a law enforcement officer to prevent the commission

of offenses and resolve various types of conflict situations, and thus reduce the risk of

becoming a victim of violence against themselves, raises the issue of proper

psychological support for law enforcement.

Experts point out that in order to ensure effective psychological support for law

enforcement officers, it is first of all necessary to:

 Ensure the availability of qualified psychologists in all structures and services who

have knowledge not only of general psychology and methods, but also understand

the specifics of the activities of various units and have special methods for

psychodiagnostics.

 Conduct psychodiagnostics studies both before and after performing special

official tasks. Based on the data obtained, provide recommendations for the

prevention and correction of mental conditions. It is important to detect acute

stress disorder at the initial stage to avoid the transition to chronic and post-

stress conditions that are difficult to correct. Particular attention should be paid

to employees who have been in extreme conditions and psychodiagnostics should

be conducted immediately after the events.

 Understand that negative mental states do not occur in all employees and depend

not only on the importance of the traumatic event, but also on the personal

characteristics of each employee, such as reduced adaptive potential, character

accentuation, psychopathization. It is also important to keep in mind that the

likelihood of mental disorders depends on the presence of traumatic situations in

the past.

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These aspects should be taken into account for effective psychological support of

law enforcement officers in the performance of their duties (Tanko, 2015).

Experts identify key aspects that require priority improvement in the psychological

support of law enforcement agencies in extreme conditions. The following are important

among them:

a) Assessment of work intensity and psychophysiological load for different types of

law enforcement activities.

b) Study of the factors leading to professional dissatisfaction among law

enforcement officers and the main mental disorders that may arise in law

enforcement officers during operational activities.

c) Study of the psychological characteristics of law enforcement officers' actions in

risky and dangerous situations of operational activities.

d) Analysis of the psychological impact of various stress factors that arise during

operational and service activities on law enforcement officers.

e) Development of the latest methods and psychotechnologies within the framework

of professional psychological training of law enforcement officers for effective

actions in extreme situations.

f) Developing modern methods for working with law enforcement officers in the

post-extreme period, providing psychological support and restoring the mental

state of personnel after performing complex tasks of operational and service

activities and other aspects.

These measures are aimed at improving the psychological health and effectiveness

of law enforcement officers in difficult conditions of their work.

Implementation of the task of preventing violent, as well as any other, unlawful

attacks on law enforcement officers cannot be limited to the implementation of measures

aimed at neutralizing and eliminating criminogenic factors of an objective nature. It is

necessary to implement measures aimed at ensuring lawful behavior of law enforcement

officers. At the same time, it is necessary to prevent the negative consequences of

professional deformation of law enforcement officers by all possible means.

Both individual and collective work on shaping the personality of law enforcement

officers and creating an internal environment conducive to lawful behavior and

psychological health plays an important role.

The professional deformation that can occur among law enforcement officers due to

the performance of their duties in difficult and stressful situations can indeed affect their

behavior and contribute to the risk of violence. Such situations require systematic

psychological training and support for law enforcement officers.

It is important to provide employees not only with theoretical knowledge and skills,

but also to develop their emotional and volitional qualities, which can be useful in

stressful situations. It is also necessary to implement a system of control and accounting

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of their professional activities in order to prevent abuse of authority and to perform tasks

in compliance with relevant norms and standards. This helps reduce the risk of violence

and threats by law enforcement officers.

In general, effective psychological training and support for law enforcement officers

is an important component of preventing unlawful behavior and ensuring the safety of

both the officer and society as a whole. This problem is especially relevant for rank-and-

file and junior management personnel, who often have an overestimated self-esteem

compared to their actual capabilities, a belief that government officials are allowed to do

more than ordinary citizens, and an overstated level of harassment.

Experts identify the following areas for early prevention of possible professional

deformations of law enforcement officers:

 Continuous improvement of the level of service readiness on the basis of deep

moral and legal values, including awareness of the idea of continuous

improvement.

 Focusing efforts in the system of education and social and psychological work on

the development of such professionally important personal qualities among

employees.

 Using the opportunities of advanced professionalism and learning from the best

examples to improve the level of service skills and the quality of performance of

their duties by employees in their daily work to exercise their rights and

responsibilities (Tanko, 2015).

The main areas of educational influence in order to prevent misconduct of law

enforcement officers should be:

a) Formation of beliefs about the exceptional importance and necessity of law

enforcement officers' service in society, along with fostering respect,

attentiveness and polite attitude towards citizens.

b) Educating members of the personnel in the spirit of elitism and positive

corporatism, emphasizing the need to support and enhance the authority of law

enforcement agencies and to foster respect for all public authorities.

c) Formation of high moral qualities among employees and improvement of general

and professional culture.

d) Developing the ability to perform their official duties in accordance with high

moral and ethical standards, including professional ethics, oath requirements,

statutes, guidelines and other relevant regulations.

e) Formation of a healthy moral and psychological climate in the team, based on the

principles of continuity among law enforcement officers and principled

condemnation of negative behavior of colleagues who violate moral and legal

norms. It is also important to teach employees to defend their rights and

obligations in cases of violations by other employees.

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f) Formation of the necessary volitional qualities and skills to resist an aggressive

environment, while trying to use non-violent methods as much as possible.

g) Raising the level of managerial culture among managers at all levels of

management, from the initial to the highest.

Most of the time, when law enforcement officers are faced with threats or violence,

they do not react in a victimized manner. That is, they do not show weakness or seek

help, which may be necessary in such situations.

This situation can be caused by several factors. Firstly, law enforcement officials,

especially if they consider themselves strong and independent, may be reluctant to

acknowledge their victimization or concerns and try to conceal the facts of violence or

threats. Secondly, there may be fears or beliefs that prevent law enforcement officials

from seeking help or disclosing their victimization. This may be related to an image of

professional independence and resilience that may be prevalent among law enforcement

officers.

It is important that law enforcement officials are aware of their rights and

opportunities to receive help and support in the event of threats or violence. Work on

psychological training and awareness of the importance of victimization can help improve

the situation and ensure the safety of law enforcement officers.

This situation is caused by the employee's desire to avoid responsibility for violating

various job descriptions, rules of conduct or safety standards. At the same time, the

relevant practice at the level of departments and services is a consequence of negative

manifestations of corporate behavior of law enforcement officers. According to O.

Ignatov, the corporate nature of law enforcement officers is largely due to the specifics

of their activities, mutual responsibility, and a defense mechanism of self-justification.

Bringing to justice for various kinds of offenses of not every employee is partly the result

of corporate corruption in a broad sense - "the misunderstood "solidarity" of lawyers who

condone violations of the law by their colleagues". In turn, the silence of law enforcement

officers about the facts of violent attacks against them makes it impossible to establish

the real scale of this phenomenon, analyze the situation of the relevant acts, and the

factors of their determination, and, accordingly, significantly reduces the possibility of

developing effective prevention measures. This problem is significantly exacerbated by

the growing confidence of criminals in the possibility of avoiding punishment and the

vulnerability of law enforcement officers (Tanko, 2015).

Thus, one of the main means of preventing threats or violence against law

enforcement officers is to establish the real scale of this phenomenon, including by

preventing the concealment of relevant facts by law enforcement officers themselves.

When considering the system of special criminological measures to prevent threats

or violence against law enforcement officers, one should take into account the particular

importance of the problem of means of ensuring personal safety of law enforcement

officers.

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4. Conclusions and directions for further research

The safety of law enforcement officers should be given no less attention than

their health and combat training. It is possible to create advisory groups and

departments in law enforcement agencies, assigning them the following responsibilities:

counseling, training in self-defense measures; finding out the reasons that contributed

to the commission of violent crimes against law enforcement officers; generalizing

practice in relation to solved and investigated cases of this category; using the entire

arsenal of scientific and practical measures to prevent these crimes.

Among the alternative measures to ensure personal safety of law enforcement

officers, we believe that the proposal of experts to legislate the right of persons who had

the right to carry combat or service weapons at all times during their work in law

enforcement agencies and courts, to receive them for free after retirement, if in

connection with the performance of their duties in the past there may have been attacks

on life and health. A positive characterization from the place of former employment and

the absence of statutory grounds for refusing to issue weapons should also be mandatory

conditions for issuing them. According to other scholars, such a proposal can be accepted

subject to a number of points: the phrase "if in connection with the performance of their

duties in the past, there may have been attacks on life and health" should be excluded.

It is also necessary to add certain conditions: a petition from the heads of the ministries

in which they served; a health certificate. In addition, it is necessary to provide for the

withdrawal of service weapons in the following cases: being declared insane; criminal

prosecution; immoral behavior in everyday life with administrative prosecution; personal

unwillingness.

With regard to the implementation of certain specific measures of special

criminological prevention of threats or violence against law enforcement officers at the

level of detection and suppression of crimes, the direct role in this belongs to the bodies

competent to implement the relevant operational and investigative measures.

With the help of operational criminological research, it is possible not only to

accelerate the acquisition of objective knowledge about the dynamic trends of crime, but

also to better understand the nature of criminal phenomena and processes, the

immediate causes and conditions of their origin and development. In particular, when

studying regional and "local" crime and its individual types, a unique, previously unused

opportunity opens up to directly and indirectly observe criminal manifestations in the

process of their emergence, formation and development with the involvement of

operational and investigative forces, means and methods. It is with the help of covert

operational and investigative forces, means and methods that a unique opportunity

arises to monitor criminal phenomena as if from the inside, by the method of

surveillance, to constantly monitor changes in the criminogenic and criminal

environment, to obtain a unique type of social information about hidden processes,

functioning crime centers, and criminally active parts of the population.

The results of forecasting the development of the criminal situation (based on the

analysis of official and operational information) should be used to prepare documents

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for legislative bodies and local self-government bodies in order to neutralize crime

factors. In particular, it is advisable to include in each State Program for Combating

Crime an independent section on the protection of the safety of police officers with a

starting analytical basis for combating attacks on the life, health and dignity of police

officers and appropriate criminological planning for strengthening such a fight. In

general, the effectiveness of such planning needs to be decisively improved through

better departmental control.

Bibliographic References

 Belenok, V. V. (2021). Criminal law and criminological characteristics of threats

or violence against a law enforcement officer (Сandidate dissertation, National

Academy of Internal Affairs).

 Voloshyna, Yu. V. (2018). Theoretical analysis of special criminological prevention

of threats of physical violence. Scientific Bulletin of the Dnipro State University of

Internal Affairs, 2, 104-108.

 Hladkova, Ye. O. (2014). Prevention of violent crimes against employees of

internal affairs agencies of Ukraine. Kharkiv: NikaNova.

 Myroshnychenko, A. K. (2018). Criminological characteristics of revenge as a

motive for committing crimes against law enforcement officers and judges

(Сandidate dissertation, Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs).

 Tanko, A. V. (2015). Criminological characteristics and prevention of threats or

violence against law enforcement officers (Сandidate dissertation, Kharkiv

National University of Internal Affairs).