Criminal drink-driving: a look of a law enforcement agent and perspectives of prevention

The article deals with the problems of applying Art. 264.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Violation of Traffic Rules by a Person Subjected to Administrative Punishment". For this purpose, a survey of 37 justices of the peace and 114 inspectors of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of Irkutsk Oblast was conducted. Experts were asked to assess a number of points related to the personality of the offender, the potential for their resocialisation and the forecast of the development of the problem for the near future. Also, on the basis of empirical material, a typology of the criminal's personality was proposed and frequency characteristics of the occurrence of these or other types of violators were revealed. Thus, during the study, the following types of offenders were identified: 1) openly aggressive (obviously opposing, threatening, physically resisting); 2) passively aggressive (implicitly opposing, delaying the implementation of measures to detain, not signing the protocol); 3) cooperating (not resisting, recognising guilt and not protesting); 4) complainants (requesting release, referring to financial difficulties, life problems, trying to deceive road patrol officers); 5) corruption (recognising guilt and offering to let go for a reward); 6) self-confident (offering to release them due to their official position, available personal connections with the authorities of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate); 7) hypocritical (denying the fact of driving). Also, respondents expressed their views on possible measures to prevent crimes under Art. 264.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, among which were: car seizure, increased penalties, increased number of road patrol officers, ignition interlocks for violators' cars, change in the rules for alcohol products turnover, lifetime deprivation of driver's license and so on. In addition, experts were asked about the main trends in the development of the problem of drink-driving in Russia. Among road patrol officers, 25% indicated positive trends in the solution of this problem, 23% gave a negative forecast, 52% reported no observable significant changes. Among justices of the peace, only 11 % of the respondents gave a positive forecast, 89% answered that they did not expect a serious progress in solving the problem of drink-driving. According to experts, another important factor that makes it difficult to resocialise offenders is the lack of practice of coercive measures of a medical nature for them, namely, forced treatment for alcoholism. 100% of the interrogated justices of the peace reported that this measure is not used, since it is associated with the imposition of punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty, almost inapplicable for such crimes. Consequently, one of the key tools affecting drivers' alcoholisation has almost no practical application.

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