Specificities of instituting criminal proceedings and typical investigative situations at the initial stage of investigating illegal adoption

Arragement of children left without parental care is one of the priority areas of state activities. Criminal law protection, safeguarding minors’ legitimate rights and interests when adopting should be secured by the rule of law provided for by Article 154 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. However, in practice a large proportion of the illegal actions relating to adoption remain undetected, or law enforcement agencies are unable to prosecute those responsible for these crimes. The paper contains an analysis of the reasons why the crimes provided for by Article 154 of the Criminal Code are latent; the specificities of identifying the indicia of a crime and peculiarities of instituting criminal proceedings for illegal adoption are examined. Particular attention is paid to the contents of typical investigative situations at the initial stage of the investigation of illegal adoption, the objectives of investigation are defined and algorithms for their solution are proposed.