Criteria for distinguishing looting from other crimes: A comparative analysis

Abstract

With the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, increasingly often crimes of a general criminal nature are instead qualified by Article 432 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, where the composition of crimes is entirely different. The purpose of this study was a comprehensive analysis of the structure of the criminal offence of looting by comparing it with other crimes, as well as formulating a unified practice of understanding and qualification in the aspect of the subject of the study. According to the set purpose of the study, a complex of scientific methods was used, namely, general scientific and special ones: the method of statistical research – to analyse and compare the dynamics of committing criminal offences related to looting; dialectical – within the framework of investigating the theory and practice of contradictions related to the incorrect qualification of looting; comparative legal – in the context of analysing the positions of other scientists regarding the understanding of the essence of looting; formal logical – when defining the legal category “looting”. It was established that the need for the correct application of the specified provision is conditioned upon such circumstances as the increase in the number of cases of looting that become known from open sources of information, which are not properly registered and not investigated by law enforcement officers, which is due to the lack of experience in working with criminal offences of such specificity and complexity of their registering in the occupied territories; the need to distinguish such crime as “looting” under Ukrainian legislation from cases of robbing civilians, their living quarters, vehicles, shops, and other infrastructure for profit and satisfying one’s personal needs. The practical significance of this study lies in the fact that the main statements and conclusions can be used in methodological recommendations for the development of an algorithm for the investigation of criminal offences related to criminally illegal actions, prescribed by Article 432 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and are also valuable for the subjects of criminal justice in their activities to eliminate misunderstandings and different interpretations of the current legislation revealed by practice; considered when improving the legislation aimed at the prevention and fight against this type of crime, by making corresponding amendments