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Corresponding author:
1 Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University, Ukraine. 
E-mail: roslemekha@gmail.com 
2 Lviv University of Trade and Economics, Ukraine.
E-mail: bogdanshchur1965@ukr.net 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2020-6-2-43-46

CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF ECONOMIC  
CRIMES LINKAGE IN THE CONTEMPORARY REALITIES  

OF INTEGRATION PROCESSES
Rostyslav Lemekha1, Bogdan Schur2

Abstract. The economically and socially advanced countries of the world have encountered a number of issues 
that are not new and examples of the systematic recurrence of which are known in Europe, Asia, America, Africa. 
The spread of infectious diseases and the fight against their worst consequences have become relevant to different 
countries at least every 50 years. Such recurrence, and therefore high probability and expectation, should be taken 
into account in the National Security Strategies and, rather, resources should be accumulated quickly to minimize 
the adverse effects on societies and the world at large. Nonetheless, the first quarter of 2020 has been extremely 
difficult for countries that, with their vast array of new technologies, have been unable to navigate the dangers 
of COVID-19 coronavirus disease or take precautionary measures without undue panic quickly. In addition to 
these generally strategic ones, a number of other problems have become apparent. These include the following, 
which relate to counter crimes that are committed in the economy and keep the gaps in policy approaches to 
identify the causes and effects of all other related aspects of society. Therefore, the overriding task of international 
organizations, national governmental and non-governmental organizations are the development of concerted 
recommendations for the formulation and maintenance of systematic development of national and world security 
strategies. The component of economic security is particularly important, which is emphasized in virtually every 
speech by statesmen of countries suffering from the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus disease. There is no doubt 
that the protection of the interests of public and private persons, producers, compliance with the requirements of 
ratified international pacts, other documents at all levels of the government of the state for the awareness of the 
cause-and-effect relations of economic crimes (to which all members of the corporation should apply) remains 
paramount, which is unfortunately very low in Ukraine today. Methodology. The stated purpose of this article is 
primarily related to the use of the cognitive potential of a number of philosophical, general scientific and special 
methods. The dialectical methods of analysis and synthesis, the comparative-legal method have become the 
methods of research taking into account the desire to determine the directions of development of foreign and 
national scientific opinion on the subject of the publication, they have allowed to distinguish perspective measures 
to counteract these offenses, taking into account the experience of the highly developed EU countries. Methods 
of grammatical examination and interpretation of legal norms have helped to identify the gaps in the legislation 
governing the grounds and the procedure for bringing to justice the perpetrators of them, to develop proposals 
for its improvement. Practical importance. Establishing causality of crimes in the sphere of economy, shadowing the 
economy, which occurs in particular by committing corruption crimes, will help to identify systematic measures and 
effective instruments (including legal norms) aimed at preventing their spread and eliminating the negative impact 
of social institutions, relationships, which are not even perceived by most members of society today. Awareness of 
the cause and effect of relationships of crimes in the field of economics will enable theoretical and practical support 
for the prevention of their negative consequences by using adequate legal and other mechanisms. An attempt to 
solve such a problem is presented in this study. 

Key words: causation, property damage, criminal outcomes, crimes in the economic sphere, restitution, socially 
dangerous consequences, the purpose of criminal penalties, corruption crimes.

JEL Classification: P11, K14, H51



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1. Introduction 
Analysis of the legal protection of public relations 

in the sphere of economy allows to establish that it is 
mainly provided by means of criminal law, by establishing 
criminal liability for socially dangerous acts, the lists 
of which differ depending on the legal traditions of 
a particular crane. However, such remedies are usually 
not limited but form an integrated approach using the 
opportunities of other fields of law (Tylchyk, et al., 2018). 

For example, in the UK, the activity of the financial 
sector is governed by two sets of rules: civil and criminal 
law. In this approach, despite the preference for civil 
law in quantitative terms, parity remains between the 
interests of business and the interests of the state, that 
is, business interests are "protected" by civil law, and the 
interests of the state by criminal law. The differentiation 
of criminal liability is due to the use of qualifying 
signs of crime both horizontally (within one part of 
the article) and vertically (for example, when passing 
qualifying features from serious to especially serious). 
In The United States, among the crimes that are referred 
to as economic crimes in the Post-Soviet Codes, 
there are not only common criminal rules that "cover" 
virtually all economic processes, but also stand out rules 
that provide for liability for the most dangerous and 
sufficiently pervasive crimes. in particular spheres or 
sectors of economic activity (Streltsov, 2014). 

In contrast to the above example, Ukraine and other 
countries of the post-Soviet space are dominated by 
the approach to defining crimes of any kind exclusively 
by criminal law (the Criminal Code). However, 
many of the normative acts that it refers to, including 
administrative law, contain prescriptions for the types 
of administrative offenses and penalties for committing 
them. In domestic legal doctrines, sometimes it is 
argued that the basis of such graduation of types of legal 
liability is the degree of social danger, harmfulness of 
the offense, and therefore many crime and qualifying 
traits are such that characterize precisely the qualitative 
and quantitative characteristics of consequences 
(harm). There should be separately mentioned the 
property (as an example, causing property damage 
to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in connection 
with the misuse of budget funds in the process of 
inflating contract prices for housing construction for 
servicemen to obtain military equipment, weapons, 
equipment, clothing, medicines, food, etc.). Such 
damages are in turn divided into direct pecuniary and 
indirect (lost profits and criminal justice costs). 

According to scientist Tylchyk O. (2018), the costs of 
criminal justice make up about 2 % of Ukraine's gross 
domestic product, and it is difficult to calculate the lost 
profits from economic crime, as well as the shadowing 
of the economy. 

It is also worth acknowledging the existence of 
damage that can be conditionally attributed to material, 

although the deduction of its specific results is not 
possible: reducing the attractiveness of investment 
and the level of protection of economic relations, 
reducing the competitiveness of domestic producers, 
monopolization of the market, reducing the activity of 
market relations, suppression of such activity, etc.

In the last decade, the attention of the European 
Community has been drawn to the development of 
means of combating the legalization (laundering) of 
proceeds of crime (Tylchyk, 2018). This, on the one hand, 
is an independent type of crime; on the other hand, it is 
usually the result: the consequences of individual crimes, 
many of which are committed in the economic sphere. 
As a result of the actions of the subjects determined by 
the Criminal Law, such results, namely the proceeds of 
crime are the subject of a new crime. Their quantitative 
characteristics are now counted, however, according 
to scientists, they are significantly low due to the high 
latency of crimes in the field of economy. 

In 2017, the officially established amount of proceeds 
of crime (under indictments) amounted to almost 
6.5 billion UAH, the amount of unpaid taxes, fees, and 
other mandatory payments – 3.3 billion UAH, the 
amount of hidden profit – almost 5 million UAH, and 
the cost of counterfeit and substandard goods – over  
7 million UAH. Given that the amount of registered 
economic crimes is about 10% of the actual number 
of economic crimes, the direct material damage from 
economic crime can be much higher (only report criminal 
offenses for January – December 2017). Therefore, 
research into the cause and effect relationships of crimes 
in the field of economy is a priority area of the humanities. 

2. Definition of the concept of causation  
in crimes in the sphere of economy

Theories of causation are associated with the doctrine 
of “condition" (siconditio sine gua non), or the "equivalent 
causation" of Thomas Hobbes. The object of this theory 
was the behavior of a particular person in the aspect 
of answering the question of its relevance to the cause. 
The reason is such a condition, the mental exclusion of 
which excludes the possibility of consequences, if the 
consequence occurred despite the elimination of the 
condition, then the reason is defined incorrectly (with all 
the conditions, the possible reasons are legally equal. In 
addition, the theory of the necessary condition, formulated 
by Ortman, Birkmeister, Binding, recognizes the cause 
of any condition in the absence of which it is impossible 
to achieve the result. Unlike the previous theory, the 
conditions are recognized as non-equilibrium, the decisive, 
the most effective conditions are distinguished. Under the 
theory, a condition determines the cause of consequence 
when it increases the probability and possibility of such 
an outcome, and if it (the result) is a typical result of the 
condition that is the cause. If the results are not typical 
conditions, there is no causal relationship. The criterion 



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for determining the typicality: consciousness authorized 
officer, consciousness offender – unauthorized persons. 
Modern theories of causality, in particular the Anglo-
American system of law, determine that harm is an 
inevitable consequence of a breach of a duty to comply 
with legal requirements. The jurisprudence of Germany, 
Austria, and Switzerland determines that a legally valid 
causal link exists if the objective achieved by the subject 
is the result of his/her behavior and corresponds to the 
real state of things (Tanriveriev). Any activity of a person 
causes changes in the environment. Due to the axiomatic 
nature of the above thesis, it does not raise any objection 
and assertion that crimes in the sphere of economy, as 
a type of behavior, lead to negative changes of objective 
reality in the specified and tangible spheres.

In the aspect of criminal law, not only the consequences 
of the crime but also the criminal consequences or 
results are defined as a link between the criminal act 
(inaction) and the object of the criminal offense as 
material or non-pecuniary damage, defined by the 
criminal law norm, the object of the encroachment.  
It should be agreed with scientists who emphasize that 
the process of causation is not a linear but structurally 
complex process of interaction of constituent systemic 
causes, which mediates a successfully dangerous result 
(Soktoyev, 2014). 

The reasons for the steady increase in crimes in 
the sphere of the economy are caused, first of all, by 
the global socio-economic and political crisis in the 
country, which, against the backdrop of the spread of the 
pandemic, is gaining ground. Therefore, the organization 
of an effective system for combating economic crime is 
possible only on the basis of the unity of general social, 
socio-criminological and legal measures, including 
criminal law.

In the structure of economic crime, the size of the 
damage caused is dominated by crimes in the banking 
sector, in the sphere of international economic relations. 
Official statistics on the dynamics of economic crime 
are not objective and incomplete.

Given these circumstances, it is possible to agree 
with the findings that general measures – social 
card – become crucial for the prevention of criminal 
behavior. They should aim at a) a clear definition 
of the functions of the state in regulating economic 
relations; b) the formation of its economic and legal 
policy; c) distribution of powers between central and 
local authorities in regulating economic processes;  
d) creation of appropriate conditions for the proper 
legal behavior of economic operators; e) ensuring equal 
legal protection of the public and private sectors of the 
economy; f ) creation of such market infrastructure 
that would provide equal opportunities for realizing 
the creative potential of various business entities;  
i) establishing democratic principles of control over the 
activity of business structures, etc. (Olashin, 2015).

3. Correlation of the consequences  
of the crimes in the sphere of economy  
and legal responsibility 

As a component of causation, the consequences 
of committing crimes in the economic sphere can be 
characterized as a separate social and legal phenomenon, 
in which the signs, properties of the crime, the nature 
and features of the object of crime are repeated: the 
normatively determined and protected procedure of 
economic activity. The most detailed causation analysis 
is offered in the doctrine of criminal law. However, as 
it has been repeatedly noted by researchers, the issue 
of revising most of the provisions to date is developed 
with a view to updating the concept of counteracting 
the shadow economy and determining the place of legal 
liability for offenses, including crimes, in the economic 
sphere among the means of counteracting it. 

Analyzing the system and types of punishments that 
are imposed for such crimes, scientists indicate that the 
main goals that the legislator pursues in the countries of 
the Anglo-Saxon legal family are: the punishment of the 
offender; if not in the full correction of the criminals, then 
at least in "warning" him/her in committing new crimes; 
in cases of necessity, compensation for harm to the victims 
of the crime; reducing crime; protection of society and 
others (Streltsov, 2014). At the same time, compensation 
for the victims of crimes in this category, as evidenced by 
the statistical reports on the results of the activities of law 
enforcement agencies for the detection of these crimes, 
is not their priority. In trying to remedy such provisions, 
lawmakers have recently been decriminalizing criminal 
acts, which in turn leads to the formation of impunity in the 
public consciousness and leads to an increase in the amount 
and magnitude of the harm caused by such offenses.  
The need to establish such causal relationships is obvious. 

However, it should be borne in mind that sanctions 
of criminal law differ substantially from those types of 
liability, which are in the regulatory fields of law and 
have a compensatory orientation there. As the scientists 
point out, each branch of law must perform one basic 
function, which directly follows from the main task 
before it. Such a basic general function, which is specific 
to a particular field of law, is determined by the basic 
number, orientation, and content of the legal norms 
inherent in a particular branch of law. Therefore, a crucial 
function of criminal law is a protective function, since 
the vast majority of the basic rules of this area of law are 
aimed at protecting values, interests, and benefits from 
prohibited acts (Streltsov, 2014).

The UN Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice 
for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power (1985) 
recommends that States include restitution as 
a punishment in their laws. Criminal restitution has 
also been addressed in the European Convention on 
the Compensation of Victims of Violent Crime Council 
(1983), the CoE Recommendations on the Status of 



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Victims within the framework of Criminal Law and 
Criminal Procedure, and on Criminal Justice in Europe 
(Changing Europe, 1985). The second of these acts, 
in particular, states that: compensation to the victim 
may be imposed in the form of a criminal sanction or 
in the form of a measure instead of the sanction, or in 
addition to it; if compensation is intended as a criminal 
sanction, it must be enforced in a similar manner to 
the enforcement of penalties and take precedence over 
other financial penalties applicable to the offender. 

The current situation in Ukraine in connection with the 
introduction of a number of measures aimed at curbing the 
negative effects of the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus 
disease, especially regarding the significant restriction of 
the individual's rights to carry out economic activities, is 
quite indicative of the state and prospects of development 
legal responsibility, including for crimes in the sphere of 

economy. The enforcement of sanctions for violations of 
the established legal regime, which predominantly involves 
substantial penalties, has led to a significant negative 
reaction of the majority of the population. Particularly 
noteworthy is the significant discrepancy in the number of 
penalties for such violations compared to even the average 
wage at the tap. A large-scale practice of appealing against 
decisions in cases of relevant offenses is predicted, in case 
of violation by the authorized subjects of proceedings for 
their commission. The non-proportionality of penalties for 
these offenses for other crimes prompts another rethinking 
of the provisions of the doctrine of criminal law in this area. 
Considering that in criminal law compensation for harm 
caused by crime is considered in two respects – as voluntary 
and as compulsory, important attempts to form the basis of 
activation not only the latter, as related and different legal 
consequences of such compensation. 

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