In the epoch when terrorism and other serious crimes are cross-border problem, both the European Union and its Member States are responsible to their citizens for full ensuring of area of their internal security. Criminal offences against property or property crimes endanger the property of individuals and legal entities, as well as jeopardize their property interests. Consequently, the property rights, which are jeopardized by the crimes, are guaranteed by the State and are ensured by the Law Enforcement Authorities. Quantitatively, the largest group of criminal offences is composed by the crimes that can only be done on purpose of greediness, and most of them express themselves as the unlawful expropriation of the unfamiliar property from the lawful possession, in order to deal with that asset as their own. Such crimes are theft, robbery, extortion, fraud, and they together form more than half of all offences committed. For their research, the authors of the article have chosen the crimes with high public hazard degree from the offences against property. These offences are most of all affected by the globalization processes in the world, and they are: crimes related to a transport vehicle as a threat object; thefts from cultural objects where the objects of danger are churches or religious articles; modern frauds, when during their realization modern technical tools and new technologies are used. During the research, the co-author of the article – Prof. Dr. Jānis Ivančiks, has deceased suddenly. However, the years of joint work, discussions and scientific disputes, that accompanied the writing of this article and other written works allow co-authors to maintain the position and scientific views of this outstanding scientist in the field of forensic investigations and operational activities of special divisions. The authors show in this work the creative activity in the field of legal norms which affect personal property of individuals and their feeling, when the lawmakers eliminate the unnecessary rules, create new or improve existing ones in accordance with the country’s political, economic situation and globalization processes.
Information today is becoming increasingly important, especially in the era of progressive computerization and advancements in the area of computer technology. At the same time, there are also increasingly more threats to this category, of which the most important are criminal offenses against information protection. These are enforced by competent state authorities whose activity is necessary to maintain the proper level of security. The article deals mainly with the phenomenon of crime involving infringement of information, and its scale, using for this purpose the statistical data collected by the Polish National Police Headquarters.
In this article the current trends of development of crime of the terrorist character and extremist orientation are investigated. On the basis of data of official statistics the state and structure of crime of terrorist character and extremist orientation are reflected. The tendency of steady growth of relative indicators of crimes of the terrorist character and extremist orientation is noted. Stimulation of activity of the terrorist and extremist organizations in the Russian Federation naturally inspired the further development of criminal and legal measures of counteraction of crime. Novelization of the criminal law has caused extension of the list of crimes of the terrorist character and extremist orientation. The restructuring of standards of the criminal law directed to the strengthening of measures of counteraction to encroachments of the terrorist character and extremist orientation is followed during the modern period mainly by criminalization and penalization of acts. The outlined tendency of growth of the criminal tension interfaced to development of the terrorist and extremist activity is reflected on the types and amount of the sentences imposed by the courts for the specified crimes. Special attention is paid to the measures of counteraction to the crimes of terrorist character and extremist orientation interfaced to an improvement of legal regulation of their prevention, stimulation of the state mechanism of counteraction of activity of the terrorist and extremist organizations, expansion of the international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and extremism.
In this regard the structure and activity of federal executive authorities, the system of identification, prevention and suppression of the acts of terrorism and extremism, mechanisms of prevention and counteraction to participation of the Russian citizens in the activity of criminal and terrorist groups abroad are a subject to improvement. Significant measures of security of the citizens and society from destructive information influence from the extremist and terrorist organizations are represented, scientific and technical support of the law-enforcement activity, perspective special means and equipment, the system of vocational training of specialists in the field of ensuring the state and public security.
The authors deal with the history of formation of operational and investigative psychology as a field of knowledge influencing the national security. The article discloses in details some psychological essentials of the application of this knowledge in everyday activities of employees of special forces units, police, prosecutor’s office, courts, punishment execution system and other law enforcement institutions. The authors also notes as important that during operational activities, in the process of determination of the truth, officers have not only to help in the reproduction of the facts, but also to try to achieve the truthfulness of the evidence. Because of applying, psychological techniques of operational investigative psychology create conditions for acquisition of correct and complete information about facts, particular events being of interest to law enforcement institutions ensuring necessary impact on persons who intentionally want to hide the truth and often forward false information. Therefore, the acquisition of psychological knowledge in the operational and investigative activities is a necessity for law enforcement institutions.
The phenomenon of globalization is wide, changeable and versatile. Therefore, there are a lot of different and contradictory opionins about its historical nature, driving motives and assessment of its influence on the various spheres of the social life. As it is widely known, globalization is the integrity of the processes having place in the world, inspiring people to acquire the common quality and character and draw near each other. The problem of its influence especially on the small countries doesn’t lose its topicality even today. Facts, when after the global integration a country with a small and open economics improves its economic conditions and becomes active on the international stage, due to the development of the communication and education systems, is a reflection of the fact, that globalization has a positive impact on such countries and helps them not to lag behind the world progress.
In the modern world it is hard to imagine any field that would not depend to some extent on electric energy resources; however, the use of electricity is not always legal and general information shows that criminal offences in electricity networks are widespread in the world. Instability in the electricity market is a serious threat to energy supply security in every country and it influences economical, social and political welfare. In order to determine solutions to prevent the above mentioned cases, it is useful to study the experience of legal systems and case-law close to Latvia in relation to the above mentioned criminal offences, as well as to examine the existing problems and particularities of the situation. Taking into account foreign experience in developing legislative acts on prevention of criminal offences related to unlawful use of electricity and their application in practice, this research provides an insight into national legislation and caselaw in this field in several countries – the Russian Federation, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Poland, and the Republic of Lithuania. Analysing the results of the research and the real situation, conclusions on the peculiarities of electricity thefts, foreign practice and possible solutions to improve the situation in Latvia can be drawn.
The basis of this paper is the study of legislative acts of such counties as Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Ukrainie and Russia, related to national security, public order and interests of state prosperity in order to prevent disorders or crimes, to protect health and morality, to safeguard rights and freedoms. The objective of the paper is to assess whether the national legislation meets in this field contemporary requirements, and what are differences in comparison with the legislation of other countries. Our results show that the laws of above mentioned countries are supplemented in due time as much as possible taking into account needs and financial resources of corresponding state. The laws have also similar objectives and tasks. There are some distinctions in application of legal provisions, which, after discussion, would be usefully to introduce into normative regulations of the Republic of Latvia. The norms of law must be clearly defined; the commensurate restrictions must be appropriate for achievement of particular objective, as well as socially necessary. Moreover, the authors of the paper offer concrete proposals taking into account human rights, contemporary situation on the international scene, as well as potential of respective state institution.
Violent crimes by the degree of public danger and the severity of the caused damage far exceed other criminal manifestations. Rapers disseminate the stereotype of aggressively-violent behaviour in the domestic and leisure microenvironment. These criminal offences are mostly condemned from the point of view of the general human morality. The aim of the present article is to examine the impact of socio-economic development level of a country on the level of violent crimes which are committed in that country. Successful prevention of a violent crime, which infringes on such important values as a human’s life and health, demands scrutinizing of its causes. Any crime, the violent one in particular, is not as a rule the result of one cause but is a combination of external and internal factors. The qualitative analysis conducted within the research has proved the conclusion that there is a definite connection between the socioeconomic development level of a country and the trend of the proportion of particular crime types that dominate in it. In less developed countries the proportion of violent crimes is much higher than in the developed ones, where thefts and other crimes against property prevail.
The present study is devoted to researching the peculiarities of the hierarchy of motives in the structure of professional motivation 44as a sign of success of the professional activity of private security company employees in Latvia. C. Zamfir’s Work Motivation Inventory (WMI) was applied as the research method. The results have revealed that the motives directly related to professional activity do not have a leading function. The presence of the authoritarian syndrome as an axiological political phenomenon, which serves the regulating function of company employee behaviour, indicates the existence of an internal crisis and the necessity of changes in the operation of the companies. It is stated that the combination of motives with high ranks in the structure of professional motivation can be viewed as a prognostic factor of sustainability/unsustainability of development of the company as a whole.
In the coming decade, implementation of smart specialisation strategy concept will be topical for all EU member states given a special focus made on the areas of technology and innovation. Members of academic community conduct research in these areas to identify the challenges and offer optimal solutions to the complicated problems. It is of particular importance for the countries with a relatively modest capacity for innovation. Some of the aims of the Latvian smart specialisation strategy are to establish a platform for cooperation between research community and the private sector and to develop nanostructured materials industry. The paper analyses research results in the field of nanotechnology in Latvia using the data on the publications and projects, as well as publication citation indices. Publicly available information on performance results of the selected enterprises in the field of nanotechnology is analysed and benchmarked using public data on performance indicators of the manufacturing industry with regard to technological intensity.