Classification of Ways of Committing Fraud in the Occult-Magical Realm (Based on the Court Practice of the North-Western Federal District)

Abstract

The period of global challenges imprints on people’s consciousness. It can be described as ‘fear for the lives of their family members’, as well as ‘uncertainty about the peaceful life in the future’. Attempting to seek some kind of support, people are turning to magicians, sorcerers, psychics for advice, which criminals take advantage of by exploiting superstitions widespread in the public, committing fraud in the occult-magical sphere. In conducting the study were employed such techniques of cognition, as abstraction, analysis, synthesis and comparison. The result of the study consists in the author’s classification of the ways of committing fraud in the occult-magical sphere developed on the basis of the empirical data. The practical significance of the research for potential victims consists in the fact that on the basis of many judicial acts the awareness and acceptance of the fact that the possibility of ‘influence’ on the astral world is an illusion, and all those who offer this kind of services are fraudsters; for law enforcement agencies – improving the tactics of investigation and detection of this crime (e.g., on the basis of the model of the criminal’s behavior, the decision on joining or separating the criminal case).