Classification of decisions in criminal proceedings by volume of performed tasks

The article is devoted to the classification of decisions in criminal proceedings according to the criterion of the volume of performed tasks and the formulation of characteristic features of their varieties. It is proposed to understand the decision in criminal proceedings as a process (and result) of the subject's choice and implementation of a variant of behavior aimed at fulfilling a certain task in criminal proceedings. It is emphasized that the task is a necessary element of the decision structure, which gives grounds for classifying decisions according to the criterion of the scope of such tasks. It has been established that in doctrinal sources tasks (and decisions) are most often divided into tactical and strategic ones according to their scope. Two approaches of scientists to understanding the category "strategic" in forensic science are distinguished and analyzed. The understanding of strategic tasks as the most global ones faced by individual participants in criminal proceedings is supported. The characteristic features that allow distinguishing tactical and strategic tasks in criminal proceedings are considered: the nature of their origin, direction, degree of situationality, scope and forms of implementation. The author emphasizes that the division of decisions into strategic and tactical does not cover the entire array of cases when participants in criminal proceedings have to make a conscious choice of their behavior. On the basis of this, operational decisions are identified and characterized, which are less large-scale in terms of the scope of tasks performed compared to tactical ones. A general description of operational, tactical and strategic decisions in criminal proceedings is given, and the connections between them are demonstrated. It was determined that the further prospects of scientific research in this field are related to the clarification of the role of evidence (evidential information) in the mechanism of making various types of decisions in criminal proceedings.

tasks of criminal proceedings, scope of tasks, pre-trial investigation, trial, classification of decisions in criminal proceedings, strategic decisions, tactical decisions, operational decisions.