Article

Problems of Qualifying Crimes Under Article 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation at the Stage of Initiating Criminal Proceedings

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Abstract

At present public relations in all most vital spheres of the life of Russian society (science, education, economy, finance, defense, public safety, etc.) are seriously threatened by cybercrimes, which are constantly evolving and changing acquiring a transnational, organized, economic and political identity in the Russian Federation. The economic damage inflicted on the Russian society by cybercrimes is tremendous and could be counted in hundreds of billions of rubles and, sadly, is it growing from year to year. Especially difficult is the investigation of cybercrimes connected with the creation, use and dissemination of harmful software (Art. 273 of the CC of the RF). The use of harmful software is often a method of committing other crimes and reaching other criminal goals not immediately connected with damaging computer information protected by law. There are no clarifications of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation regarding the court practice on criminal cases of cybercrimes, and the investigators make numerous mistakes in the legal assessment of criminal actions at the stage of initiating criminal proceedings as well as at other stages of preliminary investigation. Meanwhile, the legal qualification of cybercrimes at the stage of initiating criminal proceedings has a fundamental importance for resolving most vital legal and procedural problems in the investigation of such crimes as well as for the court hearing and passing a fair guilty verdict on a case. The authors analyze Russian court and investigation practice on criminal cases involving the creation, use and dissemination of harmful software as well as related offences. They offer recommendations on the most complete legal definition of crimes under Art. 273 of the CC of the RF and present their suggestions on improving court practice at the stage of initiating criminal proceedings.

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... Another similar example is contained in the study of Evdokimov, in which he used as an example the verdict of the Kuzminsky District Court of Moscow in 2013 in criminal case No. 1-968/13 [8]. However, Evdokimov believes that under the circumstances set forth, the actions of the perpetrator are additionally subject to qualification under article 272 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. ...
... 274.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) was introduced into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation only on July 26, 2017 (Federal Law No. 194 -FL) [4]. It should also be borne in mind that digital information can be used for committing crimes of other kinds as well [5], for example, bringing to suicide [6,7], sexual harassment against minors or other persons [8,9,10] and some others. In particular, insurance fraud can also be committed by means of information and telecommunication technologies [11], Illegal drug trafficking has become widespread through information and telecommunication networks [12]. ...
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Chapter
This chapter provides guidance for critical reading of the studies and survey results about computer crime. The chapter emphasizes that all studies about computer crime should be studied carefully before placing reliance on their results. Some important items to consider include the population of sampling, the self-selection bias, and testing for the assumptions of randomness, normality, and equality of variance. The chapter discusses different research methods applicable to computer crime. It highlights that interviewing individuals can provide a wealth of data that are unavailable through any other method. One can learn details of computer crime cases or motivations and techniques used by computer criminals. Interviews can be structured or unstructured. The chapter also discusses about surveys which consist of asking people to answer a fixed series of questions with lists of allowable answers. Surveys can be carried out face to face or by distributing and retrieving questionnaires by telephone, mail, fax, and email.
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