PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LEGAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIMES AGAINST THE FOUNDATIONS OF NATIONAL SECURITY UNDER THE CRIMINAL CODE OF UKRAINE
Authors:   National University ", Vitomskyi Yurii ,   Odessa Law Academy",   , Ukraine, Bondarenko Stepan ,   National Academy of the Security Service of Ukraine, Ukraine
Published: November 2023

Legal psychology as a comprehensive science taught at many leading universities in Ukraine poses the following challenges to students and society. Research of psychological principles and rules of the penitentiary system; effectiveness of influence of organisational, legal, regime and other measures on the personality of a convict; psychological problems of recidivism prevention; development and implementation of relevant recommendations; analysis of problems of improvement of regulatory, administrative, organisational, educational and training practice of professionalism in legal activity; development of methods of professional and psychological training in relevant professional fields, prevention and elimination of professional deformation of lawyers. The new challenges facing Ukraine are leading to changes in state policy in various areas. According to the authors, one of the priority areas is to strengthen national security through various legal means. An important segment of this state policy is to bring the system of rules on liability for crimes against the foundations of national security to the current needs of Ukraine.The purpose of this paper is to identify the problematic issues that arise in improving criminal liability for crimes against the principles of national security of Ukraine, as well as to identify psychological factors through the prism of causal reality in today's conditions. It is necessary to find out why individuals commit the acts provided for in Section I of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, Special Part; what determinants are present in their minds that contribute to the commission of this particular group of crimes; how extremist activity correlates with the main motive for committing crimes against the fundamentals of national security.The methodology of the work is the dialectical method of scientific knowledge, which made it possible to consider the object of research fully and comprehensively, with all its connections and interdependencies. The research was based on the dialectical categories of the general interconnection of all phenomena, their determinism, the relationship between quantitative and qualitative changes, the transition of quantity to quality, etc. In the process, the principles of historicism, objectivity, specificity and systematicity were observed when considering the object of study. The following general scientific research methods were used: abstraction and generalisation, analysis and synthesis, transition from the abstract to the concrete and from the concrete to the abstract, a systematic approach, as well as a number of special research methods, such as historical, logical and semantic, comparative, systemic and structural, dogmatic (formal and logical), statistical (time series analysis, structural analysis, correlation analysis, trend extrapolation).Results. Some crimes against the fundamentals of national security of Ukraine, in particular, those provided for in Articles 109, 110, 112 of the Criminal Code, may have a pronounced political colouring. In the context of political and ideological diversity as the basis of public life, it is possible that the commission of these crimes by certain individuals may be provoked by their political or ideological opponents. In this regard, it should be emphasised that even if the provocateur does not actually have the relevant purpose or motive provided for as a mandatory feature of one of the listed corpus delicti (violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order, seizure of state power, causing international complications, etc.), this does not exclude criminal liability for incitement to commit the relevant offence. The provocation of a crime is a special form of incitement to commit a crime, whereby one person causes or significantly strengthens another person's intention to commit a crime, in order to then expose the latter in the commission of the crime. According to the rules of complicity, it is sufficient for only one of the accomplices to be guided by a specific purpose or motive. The main characteristic of extremist consciousness is the presence of a motivating element of direct action and the ideological validity of putting the idea into practice. At the same time, an individual's adoption of an extremist ideology cannot be legally classified as extremism. This is the discrepancy between the narrow legal approach to understanding extremism and the broad general scientific way of defining this phenomenon. Social disciplines such as sociology and political science study extremism at the ideological and motivational level, independent of the fact of the act. This means that ideological constructions, value orientations and behavioural guidelines themselves come under the scrutiny of the social sciences.Practical implications. Since legal psychology is an applied branch of psychology that studies the patterns and mechanisms of the psyche of people involved in relations regulated by law, as well as a scientific and practical discipline that studies the psychological mediation of legal relations and legal behaviour, the data obtained in the course of this study can be used in lectures on the educational components of Legal Psychology, Criminal Law: Special Part, Criminology, etc. In addition, the data generated by this research can be used to inform further scientific developments on related topics.Value/originality. Possession of knowledge in the field of legal psychology in the field of understanding the psychology of crimes against the foundations of national security will help a specialist to better manage their life, exercise control over their own behaviour, and develop professional self-awareness. Knowledge of the psychological laws of the relationship between the individual and the collective (the state) is of great importance for preparing lawyers for useful and competent activities, the correct performance of official and public functions.