The article is devoted to the investigation of the situation of the crime as an element of the criminalistic character of the illegal amber mining. The scientific definitions and the content of the criminalistic description of the circumstances of the crime are analyzed. According to the results of generalization and analysis of empirical data the allocated elements of the situation of crime committed of the illegal mining of amber, in which the criminals operate, include:socio-economic factors that determine the peculiarities of the organization and functioning of illegal amber mining, natural and climatic, protective and functional, production factors and peculiarities of the influence of the behavior of indirect participants in the unlawful event of illegal amber extraction. Criminalistically significant signs of the favorable situation of crime are given, the correlation links of the latter with other elements of criminalistic description of the crime are revealed. The author proposes an own definition of the situation of crime committing as an element of the criminalistic characteristics of the illegal mining of amber

Keywords: criminalistic characterization, situation of illegal amber mining, environmental crimes, amber