Failure to fulfill or improper fulfillment of duties for the upbringing of a minor by a parent or other person entrusted with these duties, as well as by a teacher or other employee of an educational organization, medical organization, organization providing social services, or other organization obliged to supervise the minor, if this the act is associated with cruel treatment of a minor, -
shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of up to one hundred thousand rubles, or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to one year, or by compulsory labor for a term of up to four hundred and forty hours, or by corrective labor for a term of up to two years, or by forced labor for a term of up to three years. with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to five years or without it, or imprisonment for a term of up to three years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to five years or without it.
Commentary to Art. 156 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
1. The direct object of the crime provided for by the comment. articles, public relations related to ensuring the necessary physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development of a minor are addressed. An additional object may be the health of the minor.
According to Art. 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of November 20, 1989, parent(s) or other persons raising a child bear the primary responsibility for ensuring, within the limits of their abilities and financial resources, the living conditions necessary for the development of the child. Article 63 of the Family Code gives parents the right and obligation to raise their children, as well as bear responsibility for their upbringing and development, take care of their health, physical, mental, spiritual and moral development. According to Art. 65 of the Family Code, ensuring the interests of children should be the main concern of their parents. When exercising parental rights, parents do not have the right to cause harm to the physical and mental health of children or their moral development. Methods of raising children must exclude neglectful, cruel, rude, degrading treatment, insult or exploitation of children.
2. The objective side of the crime is expressed in the improper performance or failure to fulfill the duties of raising a minor, assigned to a person by law, regulations, combined with cruel treatment of a minor by the persons specified in the disposition of this article (a parent or other person entrusted with these duties , as well as a teacher or other employee of an educational, training, medical or other institution obliged to supervise a minor).
The responsibilities for raising a minor should be understood as the responsibilities to take care of the child’s health, his physical, mental, spiritual and moral state and development, including caring for him in accordance with his age, health, individual characteristics, to protect and protect life, dignity, freedom , personal integrity of a minor, ensure his safety.
Failure to fulfill duties means inaction, refusal, or evasion of a person from taking actions to raise a minor, which he could and should have done due to the duties assigned to him (for example, failure to provide the child with food, clothing, shoes for the season, good living conditions, medical care and treatment for illness). Non-fulfillment may be recognized as the entire complex of assigned duties, or one or more duties. Untimely, insufficient, incorrect actions to raise a child that are detrimental to his rights and interests, as well as abuse of rights to raise a minor, are recognized as improper performance of duties.
3. A mandatory feature of the objective side is the method of committing the crime - cruel treatment of a minor, which can be expressed in his beating, bullying, humiliation of human dignity, denial of food, restriction of freedom of movement, etc. According to clause 11 of the Post. Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation of May 27, 1998 N 10, cruel treatment of children can manifest itself not only in the implementation by parents of physical or mental violence against them or in an attempt on their sexual integrity, but also in the use of unacceptable methods of education (rude, dismissive, degrading child abuse, abuse or exploitation).
In addition to the above-mentioned actions, cruel treatment also means inaction towards a child, which causes him physical or mental suffering or harms his life and health or creates a real threat of such harm.
If the failure of parents or other persons specified in the disposition of the commented article is not associated with cruel treatment of them, then criminal liability is excluded, since these actions constitute an offense under Art. 5.35 Code of Administrative Offences.
In cases where, as a result of cruel treatment, harm to the health of a child was intentionally caused (mild, moderate or severe) or torture was committed, or a minor was deprived of life, the actions of the perpetrator should be qualified according to the totality of crimes under Art. 115, 112, 111, 117, 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In cases where a person’s actions are associated with sexual violence against a minor, the act is classified as a set of crimes provided for in Art. 156 of the Criminal Code and the relevant articles of Ch. 18 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
4. The subject of the crime is a special one - a parent, teacher or other person who is charged by law with the responsibility for raising a minor.
5. The subjective side of the crime is characterized by direct intent. The person is aware that he is not fulfilling or improperly fulfilling his responsibilities for raising a minor, as well as his cruel treatment of him, and wants to commit these actions. Establishing these circumstances is essential for qualifying the actions of the perpetrator.
For example, by a court verdict, I. was found guilty of failure to fulfill the duties of raising minor children and the murder of her six-month-old daughter, who was known to be in a helpless state, committed with particular cruelty, and was convicted under clauses “c”, “d”, part 2 Art. 105 and art. 156 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
In the cassation appeal, the convicted woman’s lawyer asked the court’s verdict to be overturned and the case to be terminated, since the convicted woman did not have an indirect intent to kill the child, she took measures to treat him.
The Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation changed the verdict and reclassified the actions of the convicted person from paragraphs “c”, “d” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code on Part 1 of Art. 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, motivating the decision as follows. The court of first instance came to the conclusion that as a result of I.’s failure and improper performance of parental duties, her daughter developed infectious diseases of the upper respiratory tract and skin, and the development of severe malnutrition. As a result of severe infectious damage to the skin, the subsequent development of a general infectious disease - sepsis with symptoms of septic shock and multiple organ failure, severe malnutrition, the death of the convict's six-month-old daughter occurred. The court, qualifying I.’s actions under paragraphs “c”, “d” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, indicated in the verdict that the culprit was aware of the social danger of her inaction, foresaw the possibility of socially dangerous consequences in the form of the death of her young daughter, did not want, but was indifferent to the occurrence of these consequences, and concluded that I. intentionally caused death of the victim. However, from the testimony of the convict it follows that she treated her daughter on her own, gave paracetamol, put on Efferalgan baby suppositories, thought that she was teething, her daughter did not eat, regurgitated food, lost weight, she lubricated the victim with brilliant green, gave her juice, the intent to take the life of her daughter Did not have. This testimony of the convicted woman in the verdict was not refuted, but, on the contrary, from the testimony of the forensic expert and other persons it is clear that some kind of assistance was provided to child I. Under such circumstances, the Judicial Panel came to the conclusion that the convicted person did not foresee the possibility of causing the death of the victim as a result of her actions, but due to the circumstances of the case she should have and could have foreseen this. ——————————— Review of legislation and judicial practice of the RF Armed Forces for the second quarter of 2009. See: Def. N 5-O09-18.
Abuse of parental rights
In accordance with Part 1 of Art. 65 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, parents, when exercising their rights, must not contradict the interests of their children. Abuse of parental rights is considered as raising a child to the detriment of his desires or interests.
The issue of maintaining a balance of interests of parents and children in jurisprudence is open. Art. 69 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation mentions the term abuse of parental rights, but does not disclose this concept, which entails certain difficulties.
This concept is interpreted by the Plenum of the Supreme Court No. 10 of May 27, 1998. Here he includes the following:
- parents' obstacles to getting an education (ban on going to school, beliefs about the uselessness of education, etc.);
- ban on communication with close relatives;
- inclination to theft, begging;
- involving a child in the use of alcohol, drugs or other prohibited substances;
- spending the child’s funds (for example, living on a child benefit or disability pension), etc.
The Plenum did not define an exhaustive list. All cases are considered individually by the guardianship authorities.
We talked about the rights of parents and children here.
You may find our articles about children left without parents, about establishing kinship, about limiting and restoring parental rights, about the rights of adults and children during divorce and with parents in a civil marriage, about the maintenance of parents by adult children, useful.
How are such cases identified?
On the territory of the Russian Federation, such cases are controlled by a number of government bodies:
- the prosecutor's office;
- ATS;
- guardianship and trusteeship;
- commissions on juvenile affairs.
In order to hold a parent accountable, any interested party must write a statement to one of the authorities. For example, one of:
- parents;
- relative;
- neighbor;
- school teacher;
- sports trainer;
- teacher, etc.
After the application, an inspection will be carried out and evidence will be collected.
The court includes the following:
- witness statements;
- conclusions of medical workers and guardianship authorities;
- child's testimony;
- characteristics from the place of study;
- characteristics of parents from work;
- inspection reports, etc.
Responsibility
The following types of liability are provided for abuse of parental rights:
- civil law;
- criminal
- In the first case, parents can be either temporarily or completely deprived of parental rights.
- In the second case, a penalty may be imposed in the form of restriction of freedom for up to 2 years. The legislator includes such cases as involving a child in prostitution (Article 240 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) or inducement to use drugs (Article 230 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Depending on the severity of the crime committed, the court may impose a more lenient punishment, for example, imprisonment.
We wrote about violations of the rights of children and parents here.
The protection of children's rights in the Russian state occupies a leading position. The relationship between parents and children is considered in many regulations of various directions.
Legislative bodies differentiate responsibility depending on the severity of the offense, consequences and other circumstances, which affects the type of punishment. But, despite the extensive list of regulatory frameworks, each case is individual and requires lengthy proceedings.
Judicial practice: sentences and punishment under Art. 156 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
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