Criminological Security in the Sphere of Preventive Medicine: Risks and Their Prevention

Abstract

Currently there is a high public interest in solving the problems of preventive medicine (vaccinations, medical check-ups, clinical examinations). This can be largely explained by legislative initiatives that draw mixed reactions from the public, by real problems that people face during vaccinations and medical check-ups, and, certainly, by the pandemic of COVID-19. A separate group of problems connected with various preventive medical programs is composed of criminological risks and prevention of crimes associated with preventive healthcare. The authors give a definition of criminological security in the sphere of preventive medicine, single out criminological risks and present their classification. They describe the essence of key criminological risks of preventive medicine (iatrogenic and corruption ones), establish their causes and outline the ways of their prevention. To reduce the iatrogenic risks of vaccination, it is suggested that a systemic national monitoring of the safety of vaccines should be organized, including the analysis of official data, public surveys, comparison of data from various sources, and other measures. To reduce the iatrogenic risks of medical check-ups, it is necessary to reject medical examinations that pose high risks to life and health; it is also necessary for the Russian Ministry of Healthcare to issue orders with a list of medical manipulations included in check-ups which would also act as criteria of their completeness. The authors believe that corruption risks in the sphere of preventive medicine can be reduced through the following measures: 1) vaccinations and check-ups should be conducted after citizens request them in their accounts (this should reduce the number of distorted records); 2) the list of compulsory check-up procedures should not include the procedures that cause pain, are dangerous to health and life, as well as those connected with accessing closed parts of the human body, or they should be substituted with alternative procedures that provide diagnostic results; 3) a time limit for check-ups should be introduced; 4) preventive medicine should be included in the monitoring of the effectiveness of corruption counteraction. A legal and criminological expertise of draft legal acts that regulate the procedure of medical check-ups, conducted by leading legal centers (universities), should become a general measure of preventing criminological risks of medical check-ups.