BACKGROUND PHENOMENA AND THEIR IMPACT ON MILITARY CRIMINALITY
Authors:   Penitentiary Academy of Ukraine, Chernihiv, Ukraine, Lazarenko A.M. , Pidnebesna O.H. ,   Penitentiary Academy of Ukraine, Chernihiv, Ukraine
Published: July 2024

The article addresses to the study of certain background phenomena and their impact on military criminality. The authors identify the most common background phenomena, such as drug addiction, substance abuse, drunkenness, gambling, professional burnout and excessive professional stress, suicidality, discriminatory news framing, and political censorship. The authors analyze the features of the latter phenomena and their impact on military criminalty. It is established that these phenomena have background properties that directly determine the determinants of military criminality, ways to correct the negative manifestations of the personality of a military offender and the directions of its prevention. As a background phenomenon drug addiction causes military criminal offenses, undermines military discipline, reduces the combat capability of military formations and endangers the lives of both the servicemen and their comrades. The reasons for drug use among military personnel are high levels of stress, physical and psychological exhaustion, the availability of drugs, and the influence of the environment. Overcoming this problem requires a comprehensive approach, including a set of organizational, social, psychological, pedagogical, and medical measures, strict control over discipline, and measures to prevent drug addiction and taxi addiction among military personnel. It is found that the main causes of gambling addiction among the military personnel are the inability to control the state of excitement after combat, low self-esteem, the desire for quick enrichment, and, in some cases, heredity, as well as stressful situations that encourage a person to distract from the problem by getting a “dose of quick dopamine.” Suicidal behavior is being proven to be another antisocial phenomenon that has a negative impact on military crime. The ways of preventing this phenomenon include: intensification of the work of military psychologists, improvement of educational work aimed at preserving and strengthening the mental health of military personnel. Discriminatory news framing has side negative effects on military service, so it is advisable to change the media narratives of heroizing military service, the latter should be considered as an employer, and military service is a type of activity with its own characteristics. The article determines that the prevention of these background phenomena should be comprehensive and include: general social measures – organizational, social, psychological and pedagogical, medical, media (full information on the peculiarities of military service in war conditions is open); individual measures – strict control over compliance with discipline, ensuring the implementation of the suicide prevention mechanism, psychosocial support for servicemen. Key words: background phenomena, military criminality, military criminal offenses, unauthorized leaving of a military unit or place of service, evasion from military service, drug addiction, drinking, gambling, suicidology, emotional burnout, framing, crime prevention.