Determining the Efficiency of Legal Impact on Real Processes and Actual Results in Criminal Proceedings

The paper explores the possibility of determining the efficiency of certain norms (institutions) of criminal proceedings. It is emphasized that although there is no consensus in the legal science on the issue of filling the category of «law efficiency» and there is no generally recognized system of efficiency criteria. In most approaches there is a criterion in one form or another (interpretation) such as frequency of application, that is, a quantitative indicator. It is noted that the frequency of application is not a universal criterion of efficiency applicable to all situations due to the inability to take into account the social values contained in legal regulations. In addition, the terms «efficiently» or «inefficiently» are polar statements that do not reflect the entire subject area, consisting of an infinite number of alternatives within the framework of fuzzy logic. The validity of the application of the dichotomous pair «efficient — inefficient» to situations where the phenomenon has changed over time is substantiated. Studying the Institute of cassation, comparing absolute and relative indicators and analyzing the results obtained during the processing of these indicators by a number of methods of applied statistics, as well as examining the nature of the relationships between these indicators, the hypothesis was confirmed that it is possible to determine the efficiency of a criminal procedure norm (institute) based on quantitative data.