Crimes in the sphere of circulation of digital information and their determinants

The article is devoted to the analysis of modern interpretation of the concept of crimes in the sphere of circulation of digital information. In particular, it is emphasized that, in terms of its universality for criminal law and criminology, the formulation of this concept bу different authors is largely similar. In fact, it comes down to the definition of the phenomenon behind the so-called digital criminality as a broad and extremely diversified set of crimes, united by the subject of attack - digital information - and (or) the method of committing criminal acts - the use of digital technologies. At the same time, the article gives an assessment of the specificity, on the one hand, of the criminal law, and, on the other, of the criminological approach to the study of the problem concerned. In particular, it is emphasized that, unlike criminal law, the main task of digital criminology is a comprehensive analysis of the state and trends of digital criminality, a study of the circumstances that determine or stimulate its grows, as well as prospects of blocking these criminal factors. The author concludes that it is necessary to further understand the existing spectrum of criminological and criminal law problems in relation to crimes in the informational-digital environment.