Abstract: The research subject is a discredit to internal affairs agencies as a negative social phenomenon threatening both the positive image of internal affairs bodies as a whole, and the honour, dignity and reputation of their particular employees. The research methodology is based on the dialectical approach to the problem under consideration, together with general scientific (formalization, analysis, modeling, and the empirical-inductive method) and theoretical methods of modern social sciences and the humanities (the structural-functional and the systems methods). The empirical part of the research is based on the quantitative and qualitative methods of sociology: the method of focus-groups, the method of narrative interviewing, and the method of sociological questioning which helps to trace back the influence of discrediting on the formation of professional awareness of internal affairs officers. The research helps to identify the most common forms of discrediting of internal affairs officers by citizens and the main mechanisms hampering effective counteraction to discrediting actions of people, and to establish the cause-and-effect relation between discrediting as a negative socio-legal phenomenon and the peculiarities of formation of professional awareness of internal affairs officers. The author concludes that in case if internal affairs officers are lenient with discrediting, their professional awareness becomes deformed which results in the unwillingness to perform their duties properly, the sensation of the absence of the prestige of the profession in the public eye, the prospects of career growth, and the formation of negative attitude towards citizens. 
 

Abstract: The article studies provocation as one of the forms of discriminational actions of citizens aimed at deliberate impairment of dignity and authority of a police officer. The authors reveal the reasons of provocative actions of citizens against police officers, the lack of experience of police officers in the prevention of provocative actions, the absence of regulations imposing legal responsibility of citizens for such actions in the Russian legislation. The authors analyze significant components of legal culture of a police officer which help to interact with citizens within legal boundaries. The authors use the methods of analysis and synthesis of the current scientific concepts considering the essence of legal culture and the ways of forming professional legal awareness of police officers; content-analysis used for studying mass media texts and helping to establish and problematize the research method and detect destructive strategies of interaction between citizens and police officers. The scientific novelty of the study consists in problematizing provocation as one of the forms of discreditation of a police officer by citizens, establishing the motive underlying this destructive behaviour, and the reasons hampering effective prevention of discreditation of police officers. The authors analyze the significance of forming legal culture of police officers for the prevention of provocative actions of citizens, give recommendations about the improvement of legal, moral and psychological training, professional training of police officers aimed at the formation of skills of prevention of provocative actions of citizens.