The vehicle confiscation as a reaction against the road safety crimes

The subject of this article is the application of legal provisions on vehicle confiscation in the case of crimes covered by Articles 264.1-264.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on administrative prejudice. The importance and focus of the study of the presented issues arising in the process of regulating and applying in practice the rules on vehicle confiscation in the commission of crimes against road safety and transport operation are determined by statistical indicators demonstrating the demand for such a criminal law measure as property confiscation in judicial practice. The primary objective of the study is to determine the relevance of resolving key issues regarding the nature and purposes of vehicle confiscation in the commission of crimes against road safety and transport operation. The study's use of the dialectical method also allowed to uncover the patterns of functioning of the property confiscation, including vehicle confiscation, at the current stage of the development of criminal law relations in the field of crime prevention. The study also employed such scientific analytical methods as generalization, comparison, logical method, statistical research method, and others. The study's results led the author to conclude that vehicle confiscation is currently an effective form of criminal liability enforcement and an effective measure to prevent crimes committed against road safety and transport operations. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the author's conclusion that vehicle confiscation is currently an effective form of criminal liability enforcement, as evidenced by statistical data from the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation for 2020–2024. The courts apply criminal procedural measures in the form of confiscation of property (Article 104.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) what led to a decrease in the number of registered road accidents committed by drivers under the influence of alcohol (-13,036 accidents), both in the Russian Federation as a whole (-2%) and in Moscow (-1.6%) in 2020–2024.