On the issue of informal practices at the Institute of Internal Affairs Investigation

Abstract

The present article examines the features of the formation of informal  practices in the institute of the investigation of the police department. The theoretical framework of the study is the micro-sociological approach to the understanding of social actions of individuals, presented by works in the field of ethnomethodology, semiotics, symbolic interactionism. As an auxiliary theoretical concept, the systemic theory of Niklas Luhmann and his concept of trivial and non-trivial machines act. The main thesis put forward by the authors is that investigators of the Internal Affairs Department, who are supposed to be guided solely by regulatory legal acts in their daily professional activities, cannot help but be influenced by the social norms and conditions of the social situation in which their activities unfold. This is particularly evident in the research conducted by representatives of various micro-sociological schools. In conclusion, the authors argue that 1) informal practices are a part of social reality, and 2) such actions do not necessarily constitute examples of delinquent behavior.