Interdisciplinary Links in the Theory of Criminal Intelligence

Activity

Yaroslav Grigoryevich Ishchuk

, Alexander Ivanovich Popov

and Olga Alexandrovna Zygmunt

Academy of Management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Zoya and Alexandra Kosmodemyanskikh str., 8,

Moscow, Russia

Moscow University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia named after V. Ya. Kikot (Ryazan branch), 1-Krasnaya str.,

18, Ryazan, Russia

University of Vechta, Driverstraße, 22, Vechta, Lower Saxony, Germany

Keywords: Criminal intelligence activity, criminal law, criminology, administrative law, a subject of science, crime

prevention, an administrative contract.

Abstract: The article analyzes the interdisciplinary links in the theory of criminal intelligence activity. The purpose of

the work is to search for new opportunities to improve the criminal intelligence counteraction to crime. In

order to achieve the goal, the authors identified the main tasks that followed from the characteristics of a

subject of criminal intelligence activity, namely: identifying common interdisciplinary links, establishing the

presence of a unity of tasks – the fight against crime, proving the impossibility of the effectiveness of crime

prevention without conducting interdisciplinary research. The use of the method of comparative analysis in

conjunction with general scientific methods made it possible to establish common features and identify

integral tasks of criminal intelligence activities and other legal sciences, as well as to substantiate the position

according to which the conclusions of interdisciplinary research should enrich the theory and practice of crime

prevention. In the course of the study, it was found that criminal intelligence activity is based on conceptual

criminological theories. The results of the study make it possible to expand knowledge in the field of crime

prevention, to ensure the integration of theoretical knowledge into practical activities.

1 INTRODUCTION

Since the emphasized theme implies the need to

analyze a subject of criminal intelligence activity, the

prerequisites for this study were the conceptual works

of leading scientists in the considered field:

A.I. Alekseev, G.K. Sinilov (Alekseev A. I., 1973),

A.G. Lekar (Lekar A.G., 1972), S.S. Ovchinsky and

others. A new direction has been developed –

criminal intelligence crime prevention, a special role

in this invention was played by S.S. Galakhov, as well

as a number of researchers V.S. Kubarev, A.P.

Nekrasov (Nekrasov A.P., 2005), etc. The works of

A.P. Isichenko (Isichenko A.P., 2001), B.I.

Baranenko, E.A. Didorenko (Baranenko B.I., 2004)

and others were devoted to comprehensive

interdisciplinary research.

Specifying the unconditional scientific

significance of the works of all authors as the basis

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4749-8566

for our study, we state that most of the research was

carried out in a different socio-legal and criminal

situation in the country.

The hypothesis of the study is that the two-way

use of theories, practices, information, conclusions of

criminology and a number of other sciences with

criminal intelligence activity will provide new

theoretical knowledge that will increase the

effectiveness of solving the main task of criminal

policy – crime prevention (Ishchuk Ya. G., 2021).

The purpose of the study is to identify and

describe common joint “interests” of legal sciences

and criminal intelligence activity, a comprehensive

analysis of the possibilities of using their symbiotic-

integrated knowledge in crime prevention measures.

In order to achieve this goal, the following tasks

were set and solved: the interrelation and place of

criminology and criminal intelligence activity in

criminal policy were determined, conceptual and

Ishchuk, Y., Popov, A. and Zygmunt, O.

Interdisciplinary Links in the Theory of Criminal Intelligence Activity.

DOI: 10.5220/0010636100003152

In Proceedings of the VII International Scientiﬁc-Practical Conference “Criminal Law and Operative Search Activities: Problems of Legislation, Science and Practice” (CLOSA 2021), pages

319-324

ISBN: 978-989-758-532-6; ISSN: 2184-9854

319

“private” interests (tasks) of sciences were found, the

value of interdisciplinary research in the field of

crime prevention was proved.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

The research materials were scientific works in the

field of criminology, criminal intelligence activity

and a number of other sciences.

The study was based on a dialectical approach to

the disclosure of interdisciplinary relations using

general scientific (systemic, logical, analysis and

synthesis) and specific scientific methods: formal-

logical, structural analysis, comparative method.

Cognitive procedures of system analysis, an

integrated approach to the considered problem were

used. The application of a combination of these

methods and some other ones made it possible to

study and analyze the scientific work of scholars and

the practice of criminal intelligence activity.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Currently, complex (“interdisciplinary”) studies of

various sciences make it possible to look at existing

theoretical and practical problems from a different

angle and develop promising ways to solve them. Key

fields of criminological knowledge are focused on the

theoretical and practical aspects of law enforcement.

The knowledge obtained as a result of the integration

of criminology into the sciences of the “anti-criminal

unit” offers practitioners new ways to solve the

problems of crime prevention.

Criminological ideas are the most important

guideline and source for the formation of criminal

policy, the development of anti-criminal legislation

and law enforcement practice. Criminology occupies

a special, fundamental, and connecting place in the

structure of criminal policy and the disclosure of this

theme requires individual attention and a separate

discussion. Its place can be schematically indicated in

the following way:

Figure 1: Criminal policy.

It should be emphasized that criminal intelligence

activity is organically interconnected with some

sciences (psychology, administrative law,

constitutional law, criminal procedure law,

criminalistics, criminology, criminal law (Shkabin,

G.S., 2017), etc.): on the one hand, it has at the basis

of its concepts certain knowledge of these sciences,

uses their methods and new information, replenishing

its own knowledge, while developing the own

conclusions.

A feature of modern science is the tendency to

synthesize knowledge. New realities are such that

without the synthesis of information obtained through

its accumulation from other areas of knowledge, it is

impossible to solve modern complex problems.

Scientists (Lebedev S. Ya, 2009; Dolgova A.I., 2017;

Antonyan Yu.M., 2014; Kvashis V.E., 2019)

reasonably call such a synthesis criminological, since

it corresponds to the goals and objectives of criminal

policy.

The crime prevention system is fundamental to

achieving the purpose of criminal policy and the only

way to reduce the number of crimes: it does not allow

to increase the scope of criminality and boost the

number of victims of crime. The criminological core

of knowledge about crime prevention, being filled

with new data from the sciences of the anti-criminal

cycle, is being implemented in specific areas:

criminal intelligence, criminal law, criminal

procedure, and criminal executive.

Trying to comprehend the criminality,

criminology is the cornerstone of all scientific

information about crime. Criminology can always be

used in research as a starting point of knowledge, as

a general theoretical key to understanding and solving

the problems of the fight against crime.

Therefore, a special task of criminology is to

provide theoretical assistance to criminal intelligence

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science, by forming an appropriate knowledge base

for high-quality strategic and practical direction of the

fight against crime.

The criminological foundations of criminal

intelligence activity are determined by the

commonality of the most important goal, which is

established by criminal policy. Currently, the target

vector of criminal policy is aimed at protecting

citizens (Martynenko N.E., 2021), society and a state

from crime.

The solution of modern problems of the fight

against crime is impossible without an integrated

approach, which requires determining the intersection

of academic interests – the subjects of sciences.

The main question of the interrelation between

criminal intelligence activity and a number of other

anti-criminal sciences is to what extent the spheres of

interests of these sciences are connected and,

therefore, to what extent in the process of research it

is possible to determine the degree of their contact.

Note that the objective interrelations of the

sciences are diverse and they are not exhaustive.

These junctions determine complex research, as a

result of which new knowledge appears, aimed at

solving practical problems in the field of crime

prevention.

Thus, the interdisciplinary link is formed through

the cognitive process of criminality as an integral

phenomenon, as well as such categories as: latent

criminality, the genesis of criminal (pre-criminal)

behavior, the mechanism of committing crimes;

activities and characteristics of persons plotting to

commit a crime, hiding from law enforcement

agencies; analysis and forecasting of the crime

situation and the field conditions; prevention (control,

counteraction) of crimes, legal registration of

procedural and a number of other documents, etc.

The most important element of using the

criminological characteristics of criminality in the

organization of the criminal intelligence activity is the

assessment of the criminogenic (strategic) situation.

Knowledge of the actual quantitative and

qualitative indicators of criminality, its geographical

features; about criminally affected groups of

population; understanding the negative tendencies in

the development of certain groups of crimes, etc.

makes it possible to ensure the implementation of the

principle of rationalization in the organization of

criminal intelligence activity in the country and its

separate regions, to focus the attention of law

enforcement forces and means on conceptual areas,

purposefully, taking into account local conditions, to

develop the most effective measures for crime

prevention and solution. Criminological forecasting,

the main task of which is to determine stable

tendencies in criminality and the factors influencing

it, is a necessary prerequisite for a quick assessment

of the situation and planning of strategical measures.

Forecasting forms the foundation for criminal

intelligence activity, since its information banks are

created on the basis of a prediction of the probability

of illegal behavior of citizens.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of

predictive activity. It allows you to avoid mistakes

while choosing objects of strategic prevention and

verification, to successfully solve tactical tasks to

anticipate the actions of criminals. The predictive

work in the structure of criminal intelligence activity

becomes a form of this operation, which requires the

use of ever-increasing intellectual and organizational

activity (“criminological thinking”). The

development of “criminological thinking” among law

enforcement officers requires a separate

interdisciplinary consideration. (Gorach N.N., 2019)

The authors of the textbook “Criminal Intelligence

Activity” (Goryainov K.K., 2004) noted that the

dialectical approach to the phenomenon makes it

possible to combine the analysis of the past,

diagnostics of the present and forecasting the future

into a single process.

Further, moving to the cornerstone intersection of

the considered sciences – “the personality of a

criminal”, we define its content as a complex of

significant social, psychological, biological and legal

features integrated in the individual, which in their

totality and in interaction with certain determinants

and a specific situation caused the commission of a

crime.

Criminology, by generalizing the indicated

features, forms certain types and groups of

“criminals”, which is the necessary knowledge in

criminal intelligence activity in order to understand

the conditions for the formation of a criminal in his

immediate environment, his connections and acts in

social and digital space.

The personality of a criminal is interesting for

criminal intelligence activity because it is the main

and most important link in the mechanism of criminal

conduct, and, accordingly, its features that give rise to

such behavior should be the direct object of law

enforcement interest.

Criminology, identifying and studying the causes

and conditions of crimes, simultaneously determines

the directions of their elimination, formulates

practical recommendations for the prevention of

crimes. An effective direction of the crime prevention

system is special preventive mechanism (Borin B.V.,

2017), which is also implemented in criminal

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intelligence activities – criminal intelligence crime

prevention.

Criminal intelligence prevention is a scientifically

grounded and regulated by legal norms activity

carried out by specialized subjects (criminal

intelligence divisions), which consists in the

integrated use of criminal intelligence capabilities in

order to determine and eliminate the causes and

conditions of the commission of crimes, to identify

persons from whom it is possible to expect the

commission of a crime, and providing them with a

preventive effect, as well as ensuring the safety of

citizens in need of special protection measures.

Recent criminological studies (Vardanyan A.V.,

2018; Smakhtin E., 2018; Moosavi L.A., 2018)

allowed representatives of theory of criminal

intelligence activity to continue researching the legal,

organizational and tactical foundations of criminal

intelligence crime prevention. Criminal intelligence

prevention, having the same object of research – the

personality of a criminal and the processes associated

with it, the latency of criminality, studies, however,

only those aspects that are discovered and recorded

by the criminal intelligence method. Only persons

from whom one can expect a crime commission, as

well as those already plotting specific offences,

secretly preparing to commit them or attempting to

commit crimes, falls into its field of vision. In this

regard, criminal intelligence prevention is

characterized by the peculiarities of covert activities

to influence the persons being controlled in order to

prevent crimes, to take the necessary measures to

exclude the implementation of criminal intentions.

On the other hand, criminal intelligence

prevention has as its task the analysis of criminal

intelligence information about the factors that

determine the state of criminality, the reasons and

conditions supporting to the commission of offenses

and crimes. At the same time, criminal intelligence

prevention, acting as an independent direction of

criminal intelligence activity, is a special type of

crime prevention, and thus, an organic connection is

assumed between the theory of criminal intelligence

activity and the science of criminology.

Criminal intelligence activity intensively uses the

provisions and conclusions developed by the science

of criminal law. It is based on understanding of the

crime (signs of a crime), the circumstances, excluding

the criminality of a deed, stages of crime, and etc.

The situation is different with applied legal

sciences. The interaction of criminal intelligence

science with legal psychology and criminalistics is

well established.

The interaction of psychology, legal psychology

and criminal intelligence has now led to the

emergence and substantiation of a new legal

discipline – criminal intelligence psychology.

The links between criminal intelligence activity

and forensic science are close, which is determined

by the history of the development of both disciplines,

during which forensic science had a significant

impact on the formation of the theory of criminal

intelligence activity. In the system of science,

criminal intelligence activity, following a model of

forensic science, distinguishes: the general theory of

criminal intelligence activity; criminal intelligence

equipment; criminal intelligence tactics; criminal

intelligence technique. It is forensic science that

dictates to field officers where to search and how to

fix the traces of a crime. There are some events that

are impossible without forensic knowledge.

During solving the certain specific problems of

criminal intelligence activity, scientists are forced to

turn to other knowledge that is not included in the

core of anti-criminal disciplines and does not have

criminological knowledge on its basis.

In principle, we note the interrelation between the

science of criminal intelligence activity and the

science of constitutional law. The Constitution of the

Russian Federation, being the main law of the

country, has enshrined the norms that are directly

related to the criminal intelligence activity. They

include, for example: equality of citizens before the

law (Article 19), the right to the inviolability of

private life, personal and family secrets, as well as the

right to inviolability of the home, the limitation of

which is possible only on the basis of a court decision

(Articles 23, 25).

The manifestation of interdisciplinary links in the

framework of criminal intelligence activities can also

be traced in relations arising due to the involvement

of persons on a contractual basis for cooperation.

Within the framework of the contract, it is

possible to reflect in detail the content of the

relationship between parties, to determine the terms

of cooperation, types of assistance.

These contractual legal relationships arise within

the law enforcement function of a state and make it

possible to consolidate the interrelation between a

state and an individual. At the same time, a field

officer, endowed with the appropriate state and power

authorities, at his own choosing, exercising

discretionary powers, determines the counterparty.

As in administrative contracts, agreements on

cooperation within the framework of the criminal

intelligence activity do not have equality between the

parties, but in terms of their focus they are intended

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for the realization of public interests – the protection

of a person, property, society and a state from

criminal encroachments (Article 1 of the Federal Law

“On criminal intelligence activity”).

However, the contract is concluded not in

connection with the implementation of administrative

relations, but in connection with the need to detect

crimes. The cooperation between the subjects of the

considered relations is exclusively voluntary, which

allows us to speak about the presence of certain

dispositive principles in legal regulation.

It should be noted that interdisciplinary links of

criminal intelligence activity with “non-criminal”

disciplines are manifested in the preparation of

scientific and practical works on the method of

solving, for example, economic crimes, when

specialists in the sphere of criminal intelligence

activity need knowledge in the field of civil, land,

municipal and other law. Since with the help of

criminal intelligence activity, crimes related to the

life of a person, in general, are solved, the sciences

that regulate relations in society must feed the

criminal intelligence activity their knowledge and

suggestions.

Thus, the peculiarities of the emergence and

implementation of contractual legal relations within

the framework of criminal intelligence activities

allow us to speak of the presence of appropriate

interdisciplinary links.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Knowledge of anti-criminal and other disciplines

substantially completes the lore of the criminal

intelligence science about its subject, creates a

fundamental basis for a strategic analysis of the

mechanism for preparing and committing crimes.

Special (hidden) capabilities, means and methods of

criminal intelligence activity allow a deeper study of

the circumstances of the mechanism of criminal

behavior than it is presented in criminological studies,

and the combination of the obtained data allows, in

general, to solve criminological problems of defining

latent criminality, crime prevention, etc.

Thus, criminality, its causes and conditions, the

identity of an offender and criminal behavior, special

prevention measures, and other problems connected

with criminality are studied by the sciences of the

“anti-criminal cycle”, including the theory of criminal

intelligence activity. In the complex of these sciences,

criminology, being born from a number of scientific

disciplines, represents a certain integrity of the

knowledge union about crime.

The conceptual directions of interdisciplinary

links that allow solving the largest complex of

problems in the field of crime prevention and largely

determine the effectiveness of this activity are the

interrelation of criminal intelligence activity, as well

as a number of legal sciences: criminal law (Shkabin

G.S., 2018), civil law, constitutional law, land law,

and etc.

The improvement of state activity in order to

combat crime is an ongoing process in which new

problems are constantly raised and solved.

Respectively, a reasonable and optimal ratio of

interdisciplinary scientifically based approaches to

creating a modern crime prevention system can today

become one of the leading areas for criminal policy,

since crime prevention is the main means of ensuring

the safety of citizens and a state from illegal, criminal

offenses.

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