Modern organized crime in Ukraine: status and trends, causes and conditions, main areas of prevention

The present day poses significant challenges to Ukrainian society, as the situation within our society is very complex and alarming, as the fervor and unity that dominated at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have been sharply replaced by hatred (intolerance) and fierce internal clashes. Social relations built by Ukrainian society act: first, as a source of causes and conditions for crime, in particular, determining the growth of organized crime; second, they inflame the atmosphere within the country, which makes it impossible for key state institutions to work systematically and productively and to exercise effective control over them, and this makes them vulnerable to organized criminal groups; third, they contribute to destabilization in the country and vulnerability to the enemy, who takes advantage of negative processes in society, using various mechanisms and means, in particular, using connections in the criminal world. With the support of European partners (law enforcement specialists) and using the many years of experience of Ukrainian specialists, a single concept is currently being developed for systematizing indicators, analyzing and forecasting organized crime, as well as collecting and summarizing information and further assessing the threats of committing serious and especially serious crimes by organized groups, criminal organizations, and criminal communities. In view of this, the article reveals individual components of the criminological characteristics of modern organized crime. An analysis of the causes and conditions of organized crime, which are mandatory for study by subjects of crime prevention in the state and require effective influence related to their blocking, neutralization or elimination, is carried out. Taking into account the analysis and short-term forecasting, the main directions of preventing organized crime in the state are proposed, which require the development and implementation of a number of effective measures in this area.