Trends in corrupt offenses (2020–2024)

Abstract

The current state and main trends in the development of crimes related to the acceptance of an offer, promise or receipt of unlawful benefit by a public official have been studied. The relevance of studying the trends in the development of crimes related to the acceptance of an offer, promise or receipt of illegal benefit by a public official is determined not only by the increase in their number, but also by the complexity of the mechanisms for their commission, which requires systemic analysis, improvement of criminal legislation, and effective response tools from law enforcement agencies. In this context, the study of factors influencing the dynamics of such crimes and the identification of new challenges in the field of anti-corruption policy is an extremely important task for scientists, lawyers and state institutions. The basis of this study is a hypothesis that the trend in recent years has been an increase in the number of detected and registered crimes in this area. It is also been suggested that this trend is not entirely negative, as the increase in recorded cases of crimes related to the acceptance of an offer, promise or receipt of illegal benefit by an official mainly indicates a significant increase in the effectiveness of the pre-trial investigation, the improvement of the evidence base, and the profes­sionalism of detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and employees of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office of Ukraine. A number of general legal and special legal methods were used to verify and confirm this hypothesis. The use of methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction and comparison made it possible to process and systematize theoretical and practical material on the research topic. The formal-legal method was used to interpret the norms of the criminal legislation of Ukraine regarding liability for crimes related to the receipt of illegal benefit. The method of legal statistics is the basis for analyzing the dynamics and structure of the relevant criminal offenses. Taking into account the obtained results, the hypothesis put forward in this study has been confirmed.