Prevention must be specific

The report by Deputy Regional Prosecutor V.I. Guk and other officials noted that law enforcement agencies, in close coordination with other departments and organizations, have done significant work to counteract negative trends in the development of the crime situation. Specific measures were taken to prevent offenses, combat drunkenness, alcoholism, and drug addiction, and to socially adapt individuals returning from correctional institutions.

 However, recently, a number of negative trends have emerged in the sphere of criminal legal relations: an increase in hooliganism, fraud, counterfeiting, the distribution of pornographic materials, and crimes using high technologies.

Trends in the growth of certain types of grave and especially grave crimes against the life and health of citizens deserve special attention.

The main causes and conditions contributing to the commission of crimes are drunkenness and alcoholism, unemployment in socially useful labor, and domestic disarray of problematic citizens.

At the same time, a study of the practice of using individual prevention measures has shown that executive authorities and public associations at the local level do not always timely and fully exercise their granted powers to prevent criminal manifestations.

In particular, the activities of internal affairs bodies in organizing and conducting individual work with specific offenders, and bringing guilty persons to criminal responsibility under Articles 153, 154, 186 of the Criminal Code, need improvement.

Facts of murders committed using

firearms, while law enforcement officers do not always take the necessary measures for the timely removal of unregistered weapons from circulation.

 

In order to combat alcoholism, the institution of restricting the legal capacity of citizens who abuse alcohol is insufficiently used in a number of regions, although violations of anti-alcohol legislation are widespread in these regions (Liozno, Shumilino, Senno districts).

The activities of social services and employment centers need to be improved, as many crimes are directly related to the social dependency of certain citizens and their lack of socially useful employment.

The issues related to the social adaptation, individual domestic and labor placement of persons released from places of deprivation of liberty remain relevant.

According to law enforcement agencies, out of 1,510 people released in 2016 from correctional institutions and arriving for further residence in the Vitebsk region, only 586 (38.8%) were employed.

In some districts, the activities of supervisory commissions, which are designed to prevent recidivism and assist correctional authorities in organizing the correctional process for specific convicts, their readaptation and resocialization, do not meet the requirements (Gorodok, Liozno, Miory, Ushachi, Sharkovshchina districts).

Close interaction between healthcare, internal affairs, and social services to prevent alcoholism and use medical and psychological methods for treating alcohol dependence is not established everywhere. There is no proper effect from the stay of citizens abusing alcohol in therapeutic and labor prophylaxis dispensaries.

 At the same time, last year, more than 20% of all crimes were committed after alcohol consumption, including 75.9% of murders and 62.1% of grievous bodily harm.

Individual work of institutions needs to be improvedhealthcare with individuals with mental disabilities (Lepel, Polotsk regions).

There are claims regarding the organization of work of public law and order points, the activities of which are not preemptive and systematic, and are often carried out formally. The councils of public law and order points do not always promptly identify individuals prone to unlawful behavior, and do not develop and submit proposals to crime prevention entities, territorial public self-government bodies, and other organizations on matters of order protection and crime prevention in the supervised territory (Novopolotsk, Gorodok, Polotsk, Vitebsk, Verkhnedvinsk, Orsha, Dubrovno districts).

The work of commissions and inspectorates for juvenile affairs on preventing offenses in the youth environment requires greater activity (Oktyabrsky, Zheleznodorozhny districts of Vitebsk city, Beshenkovichi, Vitebsk, Lepel, Glubokoe, Polotsk, Chashniki regions).

Based on the results of the discussion, the coordination council adopted a decision aimed at improving the interaction of all interested departments and organizations in implementing individual crime prevention measures.

The assistant to the President of the Republic of Belarus – Chief Inspector for the Vitebsk Region, Pozdnyak A.G., took part in the meeting.

Head of the Organizational and Control Department of the Regional Prosecutor's Office Igor Bogachev