Latency of High-Tech Crimes: Concept, Structure and Methods of Assessing its Level

The detection and solving rates for high-tech crimes result in our insufficient knowledge about the true scale of high-tech crimes and hinders the organization of fighting them. The author discusses specific features and characteristics of high-tech crimes and offers an interpretation of the concept of their latency. Key factors influencing the latency of high-tech crimes are analyzed and main types of natural and artificial latency of such offences are identified. The author reveals and examines the factors that lead to a considerable increase in high-tech crime latency, including specific victimogenic factors. It is suggested that a coefficient reflecting the real contribution of hidden and concealed crimes to the actual criminality should be used for the quantitative assessment of latency rate for this group of crimes. The article presents a description of the specific features of methods and approaches used for the quantitative assessment of high-tech crime latency rate, including the me­thods of analogy, expert evaluation, and the information-comparison method. The difficulties of applying traditional methods of analyzing latency, specifically, methods of analyzing victimization, have been researched. The author presents the results of the expert evaluation method obtained by conducting a questionnaire for various groups of respondents. Special attention is paid to the necessity of developing new methods aimed at detecting high-tech crimes and providing a more accurate asses­sment of their latency. The Honeypot system is given as an example. It is concluded that high-tech crimes should be viewed as high latency crimes with an increasing negative trend for latency. The specific correlation between latency and public danger of these crimes is pointed out. The conducted research should contribute to organizing the counteraction to modern high-tech crimes. The obtained results could improve the effectiveness of criminalistic methods and recommendations used at the initial stage of investigating high-tech crimes and improve the rate of solving them.