Current State, Trends and Prospects of Criminal Procedure’s Digitization Through the Prism of Public Opinion

The research of the moral foundations of criminal proceedings in the conditions of digitization requires the creation of a corresponding empirical basis. A survey of common people (citizens) and representatives of professional legal communities (judges, court staff, law enforcement employees, attorneys) conducted using questionnaires became a basis for its creation and allowed the author to draw some conclusions regarding the need of the society and the state for the digital transformation of criminal court proceedings, and to acquire an understanding of what common people and professionals in the sphere of criminal proceedings think about its digitization in view of the associated risks. The survey encompassed 27 regions of Russia. The respondents were people of different ages, levels of education and social status. The electronic format of the survey made it considerably faster and simplified the analysis of its results, rendering them more transparent and easier to analyze. The anonymity of the questionnaire increases the validity of the obtained information. The respondents were offered questions of various types, mostly closed, as well as questions with a Likert scale. The participants of the survey were given an opportunity to formulate their own answers to questions or to comment on them. The questions could be conditionally broken into two groups: the first group included questions connected with the information-communication technologies in the work of law enforcement and judiciary bodies; the second group contained questions immediately connected with the moral foundations of criminal proceedings in connection with its digital transformation. The results of the survey show that most respondents from various groups demonstrate a positive attitude to the digitization of criminal procedure activities, and most of them are also sure that this digitization of criminal proceedings poses risks. The analysis of the survey results allowed the author to conclude that both ordinary citizens and professional participants of criminal proceedings have similar opinions on many questions posed in the questionnaire.