Criminal law and criminological aspects of intimidation of the population concerning terrorist threats

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the types of threats in the commission of criminal offenses related to a terrorist act, namely: “Terrorist act”, “Involvement in committing a terrorist act”, “Public calls for committing a terrorist act”, “Facilitating a terrorist act”. The author analyzes the total number of criminal offenses committed in the field of public security, and then separately examines the corpus delicti of criminal offenses containing signs of a threat of a terrorist act. The study of this array of criminal proceedings, generalization of materials and highlighting of features and individual aspects provide sufficient grounds to assert that criminal offenses against public security are accompanied by certain types of mental violence: intimidation of the population (which is expressed in the demonstration and carrying of firearms, etc.); commission of terrorist acts with the aim of influencing the decision-making, actions or inaction of public authorities or local self-government bodies, including the threat of such acts. The article examines the elements of criminal offenses related to the threat of committing a terrorist act. The empirical study was conducted using statistical data obtained from the Unified State Register of Court Decisions and a survey of employees of the State Bureau of Investigation and the Security Service of Ukraine on the concept of threats and mental violence. The author also analyzes the percentage of criminal offenses related to threats of terrorist acts. Conclusions are drawn regarding the existence of an additional mandatory object, namely, the mental health of the population in cases of threats of a terrorist act.