Decision making and planning as elements of person’s criminal behaviour 

Andrei V. Yashin, Doctor of juridical sciences, associate professor, professor of the sub-department of law enforcement, Penza State University (40 Krasnaya street, Penza, Russia); Professor of the sub-department of Jurisprudence, Penza branch of Moscow Witte University (25b Vyazemskogo street, Penza, Russia), E-mail: andrej.yaschin@yandex.ru 

Background. Knowledge about the peculiarities of person’s criminal behaviour makes it possible to improve activities aimed at keeping an individual from committing criminal offenses. The mechanism of any intentional crime includes several interrelated and interdependent stages, one of which is decision-making and planning of illegal behavior. This stage has not been sufficiently studied by representatives of criminal law sciences and law enforcement agencies. As a result, research, analysis and scientific understanding of the features of this link in the mechanism of individual criminal behavior seem relevant and practically significant for improving the criminal legal and criminological policy of the state in the field of combating crime. The purpose of the work is to substantiate the need for subjects of prevention to study and evaluate the role of decision-making and planning in the person’s criminal behaviour in order to increase the effectiveness of measures aimed at pre-venting crimes. Materials and methods. The article used scientific works on the problem under study, materials from judicial practice, as well as the results of the author’s research. The methodological basis was the universal dialectical method of cognition. Also, when preparing the article, the following methods were implemented: logical, formal legal, socio-logical, expert assessments. Results. In the course of the study, recommendations were pro-posed aimed at improving the practice of combating crime. Conclusion. It is concluded that making a decision to commit a crime and its planning is an independent link in the mecha-nism of intentional person’s criminal behavior, its comprehensive research and analysis contribute to increasing the effectiveness of criminological and criminal law crime prevention. 

motivation, decision making, planning, mechanism of criminal behavior, socially dangerous act, preparation for a crime, crime prevention, crime preclusion, crime combatting, law enforcement agencies 

Yashin A.V. Decision making and planning as elements of person’s criminal behaviour. Izvestiya vysshikh uchebnykh zavedeniy. Povolzhskiy region. Obshchestvennye nauki = University proceedings. Volga region. Social sciences. 2023;(4):128–135. (In Russ.). doi: 10.21685/2072-3016-2023-4-10