Dragan Mladjan The Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies, Belgrade dragan.mladjan@kpa.edu.rs Vladimir M. Cvetković The Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies, Belgrade vladimir.cvetkovic@kpa.edu.rs   CLASSIFICATION OF EMERGENCY SITUATIONS   Abstract: There is no universally accepted definition or classification of an emergency situation. Adoption of a universally and generally acceptable classification of emergency situations represents one of the important challenges the researchers, competent governmental authorities and international organizations are facing with. The classification of emergencies in this paper has been made on the basis of analyses of different sources, such as learner’s books, articles, internet sites, relevant international and national reports, etc. Based on this, several criteria have been proposed for defining classification of emergencies. Justification and acceptability of classification of emergency situations constitute an important assumption for their valid recording and more quality analysis, as well as for the international cooperation of governments, authorities in charge, members of the scientific community and non-governmental organizations from that field of work. This paper gives a short overview of the classification of emergency situations, with a special focus on the USA, Russian Federation, China, the Netherlands, Germany and Serbia. Key words: emergency situations, concept, classification, criteria, members.   Introduction             The classification is not only important for the science, but it is also one of the basic components of the common sense thinking. It is used in the process that is going from identification[1] to comparison, as a logical action. In order to be feasible, the classification needs to be supported by a derived description of the subject of thinking, i.e. of the research. The researches that have been conducted to date, being predominantly focused on the classification of emergencies, are very rare. Moreover, scientific endeavours tackling description and explanation of certain subjects of research concerning emergencies or the research as a whole, where […]