VICTIMOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF VICTIMS OF CRIMINAL OFFENSES COMMITTED IN THE FIELD OF MEDICAL ACTIVITY IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article examines the criminological features of a victim of criminal offenses committed in the field of medical care. It is indicated that at the present stage of state formation there is no unified approach to defining the concept of a victim of a criminal offense in criminology and differentiating it from the concept of a victim in a criminal process. In the context of the transformation of social relations, changes have also occurred both in the structure of crime in general and in criminal behavior. Accordingly, the previous work of scientists requires changes and additions, the purpose of which is to clarify the substantive characteristics of a victim of a criminal offense. It is noted that with regard to criminal offenses committed in the field of medical activity, most of their victims are of the latent type. This can be explained by several factors. Often, patients who are subjected to criminally unlawful influence by a medical worker are not fully aware of this. This is facilitated by the fact that there are frequent cases when medical workers either do not provide the necessary information about the patient’s health status, or insure themselves by incompletely entering data into medical information databases. Accordingly, a patient who has not been previously informed about all the risks of medical intervention or existing methods of treatment cannot assess the professionalism of the doctor and, accordingly, believe that the negative health consequences did not occur due to improper treatment, but due to the peculiarities of the course of the disease or their condition. It is summarized that the peculiarities of the composition of the studied type of criminal offenses often make it impossible to timely identify potentially criminogenic situations in the field of medical care, which, accordingly, complicates the correction of victim attitudes in victims.