Abstract
<jats:p>The article provides a comprehensive criminological analysis of the socio-psychological determinants of criminal offenses against the environment, emphasizing their system-forming role in shaping criminally unlawful behavior. The mechanisms of interaction between internal personal characteristics and external social conditions that influence decision-making regarding violations of criminal law prohibitions in the field of environmental protection are examined. The causal complex of environmental crime is identified, encompassing moral, motivational, worldview, and professional traits of the individual, as well as social, economic, cultural, and psychological factors. It is substantiated that deformations of legal consciousness, value orientations, and the motivational sphere, combined with utilitarian-consumerist behavioral models, a low level of environmental culture, legal nihilism, and social infantilism, create a favorable environment for violations in the field of environmental protection. The socio-psychological profile of persons who commit such offenses is characterized, revealing the predominance of situationally criminogenic types, a low level of special recidivism, and a significant influence of external objective circumstances, including economic instability, social vulnerability, and professional and organizational deficiencies. It is established that offenses committed at large industrial facilities are marked by an increased level of environmental risk and are primarily caused by professional negligence, formalism in the performance of official duties, and an insufficient awareness of the scale of potential harm. Systemic interrelations between socio-psychological, economic, managerial, and legal factors forming a multilevel system of determination of environmental crime are analyzed. The role of public indifference and tolerance toward environmental offenses as an important mechanism for their reproduction is emphasized. The expediency of establishing interagency temporary preventive groups within law enforcement and environmental protection bodies is substantiated. Priority directions for improving preventive activities are identified, aimed at enhancing environ-mental culture and legal awareness, strengthening personal and professional responsibility, and improving state control and law enforcement in the context of contemporary socio-economic and wartime challenges. Keywords: criminal offenses against the environment, socio-psychological factors, determination of crime, criminological analysis, legal awareness, offender, minors, state of alcoholic intoxication, ecological culture.</jats:p>