Hooliganism: what it is, responsibility, types, disposition, judicial practice, etc.

A law-abiding citizen is by no means immune from attacks by one offender or a group of people committing hooliganism. In order to competently defend your legitimate interests when interacting with law enforcement officers and in the judiciary, having achieved compensation for the damage suffered, it is useful to know what hooliganism is and how it differs from similar illegal acts.

The concept of hooliganism is spelled out in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Accordingly, hooliganism is not an administrative offense, but an act entailing criminal liability.

Important: one should clearly distinguish between hooliganism as a crime defined in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and petty hooliganism as an administrative offense prescribed in the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) of the Russian Federation.

But in each case, whether minor or “major” hooliganism, these are always actions that violate public order and mean obvious disrespect of the offender/offenders for society.

Comments to the article of the Criminal Code “hooliganism” state that public order is a generally accepted / established system of relations between individuals in a particular society, the rules of community life on the basis of mutual respect, established not only by the current legislation, but also by traditions, customs, and moral norms.

Please note: according to the Code of Administrative Offences, petty hooliganism is a violation of public order (public order), and according to the Criminal Code - a gross violation. The concept of a gross violation of the OP is evaluative. It means materiality, significance, a significant measure of the violation. Qualify the actions of a person precisely as provided for in Art. 213 of the Criminal Code allows for the mandatory presence of clearly expressed (obvious) disrespect for society.

It is also important to note that (petty) hooliganism is always an intentional (administrative) crime. If it is not possible to discern malicious intent in the actions of the guilty person, they should be classified as another administrative or criminal offense.

Insulting, beating, causing harm to the health and/or property of the victim/victims, committed on the basis of hostile (hostile) relationships with relatives, neighbors, or co-workers, do not constitute hooliganism if the actions of the culprit(s) do not have obvious intent to violate the OP.

The main sign of hooliganism is that the listed actions are carried out against unfamiliar and unknown persons. The attacker sees or specifically seeks in the victim’s behavior a reason for aggressive actions towards him or he himself provokes a stranger into a conflict.

Important: if a stranger approaches you on the street, you should communicate with him exactly as a stranger (without shaking hands, trying to stop the dialogue as soon as possible, etc.) and in no way give him a reason to justify himself by finding arguments that they are to blame for the conflict You.

If the offender committed violence that resulted in slight harm to health, this is Art. 213 CC. If the victim’s health is caused serious or moderate harm, the criminal offense must be qualified in combination (simultaneously) of Article 213 and Art. 112 or art. 111.

Types of hooliganism

Based on the letter of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as the practice of both law enforcement and legal, three types of hooliganism can be distinguished:

1. domestic - committed with the use of weapons or dangerous objects replacing them on the basis of hostility (hostility) towards the victim / victims, which arose spontaneously;
2. extremist - committed with a weapon (its “substitute”) or without it for specific reasons set out in paragraph “b” of Part 1 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code - due to political, national, racial, ideological or religious enmity (hatred) or out of motives of hatred (enmity) towards any social group;
3. hooliganism in transport - committed with or without the use of a dangerous object (weapon) in the cabin of any public transport vehicle, be it on board an airliner, a sea or river passenger vessel, a passenger train, a regular bus or a minibus.

General criminal liability for hooliganism (synonym: rowdyism) on public transport was introduced in Russia on April 3, 2017, when the President of the Russian Federation signed Federal Law No. 60-FZ on the corresponding changes to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes. Part 1 art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was supplemented with a new paragraph “c”.

Important: the same law introduces a new article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation 267-1 on criminal punishment for actions that jeopardize the operation of vehicles. According to this article, criminal offenders now include:

• hookers - persons clinging to train cars;
• offenders throwing stones at trains and other vehicles;
• attackers blinding pilots (drivers) with laser pointers.

Punishment for hooliganism:

• falling under the 1st part of Art. 213 - from a fine of 300 thousand rubles to imprisonment for up to 5 years;
• under the 2nd part - for a crime committed by a group of persons or associated with resistance to a representative of the authorities or another person protecting the OP (policeman, vigilante, etc.) - from a fine of 500 thousand rubles. to imprisonment for a term of up to 7 years;
• under the 3rd part - for an act involving the use of explosive devices or substances - imprisonment from 5 to 8 years.

Responsibility

The article provides for five types of punishment:

• fine up to 500,000 rubles,
• forced, compulsory or correctional labor,
• imprisonment - up to five years.

When hooliganism is committed by a group of people or when disobeying authority, the degree of punishment is increased:

• fine - up to 1,000,000 rubles;
• forced labor;
• imprisonment - up to seven years.

The use of explosives or explosive devices only entails imprisonment for up to eight years.

Examples

Here are three examples of hooliganism:

1. Citizen N. invited citizen V. to a cafe where he drank alcohol. At some point, due to intoxication, the lady became jealous of citizen D., who was resting at the next table. He suggested that D. “go out and talk,” and when the fist fight did not go in favor of the jealous man, he found a stone on the ground near the cafe, grabbed and hit the victim. If N. had beaten a stranger with his fists out of spontaneous jealousy, it would have been petty hooliganism, but the use of a stone as a weapon brought the citizen under the article “hooliganism” of the Criminal Code;
2. Citizens K., L. and M., who lived in the same high-rise building, were dissatisfied with the location of a food market next to it, which was a gathering place for people of Caucasian nationality. One day the three of them started drinking alcoholic drinks in a small bar near the market. Returning home, we met two Caucasians, attacked them with ethnic insults, after which the conflict turned into a fight. Citizens K., L., M. should be prosecuted under Part 2 of Art. 213 - disrespect for society based on national hatred;
3. Citizen P. was flying from Moscow to Novosibirsk. I made a request to the flight attendant, but she politely explained that this service was not provided on board this airline. The explanation did not satisfy P., he began to insult the flight attendant, then hit the passenger in the next seat in the face. Obviously a gross violation of the OP on public transport - paragraph “c” of the 1st part of the article “hooliganism” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Case plot:

A citizen asked for legal assistance and explained that a criminal case had been opened against him under Part 2 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, that is, hooliganism committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy. After reviewing the documents and discussing the situation, it was established that the following circumstances served as the reason for initiating a criminal case.

One autumn day, the trustee arrived at a nightclub, where he met his acquaintances at the entrance, he greeted them and went inside the club. However, the client did not pass the so-called “face control” and was forced to go back outside. Once on the street, he saw his acquaintances being beaten by the club’s security guards, and my client also came under the hot hand, as a result of which he was severely beaten.

The police arrived, everyone who was beaten was asked: “Are you going to write a statement about the beating?” To which everyone unanimously refused, the police left. Moving a little away from the club, the trustee saw his beaten acquaintances and asked what happened? Why were they beaten and him? No one could really explain anything.

The client tried to call his acquaintances, asked them to pick him up, so he kept going away and then approached his acquaintances again, moving around the surrounding area and talking on the phone.

At some point, two of the standing guys decided to return to the club and find out the reason for the beating. To prevent them from being beaten again, they took two sticks for their protection. Approaching the club, the guards began to hold the door from the inside to prevent the indicated guys from entering, they, in turn, began to strike with sticks and broke the glass door of the club.

Hearing the screams of their friends, the previously beaten guys standing nearby decided that their comrades were being beaten again by the guards and ran towards the entrance to the club, some of them ran inside through the broken door.

My client at that moment was not far from the club, but did not go inside the premises.

The club's security guards, apparently frightened by the current situation, sprayed tear gas inside the club, after which the guys who ran into the club ran out. The police arrived again, collected explanations from everyone, the guys who broke the door compensated the owner of the establishment for the damage caused, everything seemed to be resolved peacefully, the police left, but a few days later a criminal case was opened against the guys, including my client, under Part 2 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The difference between hooliganism and petty hooliganism

The Plenum of the Supreme Court on hooliganism, which adopted Resolution No. 45 of November 15, 2007, was dedicated to ensuring uniform and correct justice for all crimes of hooliganism, including the interpretation of the issue of “hooliganism and its legal difference from petty hooliganism.”

Thus, when deciding the presence or absence of a gross violation of public order in the actions of a citizen, consisting of obvious disrespect for society / society, the courts are ordered to take into account the time, method, place of their commission, as well as examine their duration, intensity and other circumstances of a particular case. The Supreme Court document orders the circumstances proving the crime under the article on hooliganism to be indicated in the verdict.

The use of weapons or “replacing” objects is prescribed to mean the deliberate use by the accused of these objects both for physical and moral/mental influence on the victim, as well as other actions indicating the intention to cause violence through these objects.

The resolution also clarifies:

• the procedure for qualifying the actions of the accused as an offense as part of a group of persons by prior conspiracy;
• principles for determining in the actions of the defendant resistance to a representative of the authorities or another person guarding the OP;
• principles for qualifying the defendant’s actions under other articles of the Criminal Code or under the combination of Article 213 and other articles;
• other points related to the qualification of actions as criminal hooliganism.

If the actions of a citizen are not subject to qualification under Article 213 of the Criminal Code in accordance with this resolution of the Supreme Court, the offender should be punished for hooliganism in accordance with the Administrative Code.

Hooliganism and crime against the person

The objective and subjective aspects of hooliganism and crimes against the person are practically no different. In judicial practice, it is quite difficult to distinguish between these two types of offenses. But there are a number of criteria that allow us to distinguish between hooligan and personal motives in committing a crime. To understand this, you will need an article of the Criminal Code - hooliganism (213). If you analyze the information presented in it, you can see that hooligan motives are almost always blurred.

1. In a crime against a person, the instigator plans and prepares for it. Each of his actions is thought out and logical. The actions of hooligans are not logical and consistent.
2. The bully has no personal grudge against the victim; As usual, he himself provokes victims into conflict. In a crime against a person, actions are characterized by deliberation and prudence. Here the offender has personal motives.
3. If you carefully look at the composition of hooliganism, you can understand that the offender, by his actions, causes more harm to public order than to a specific person. He has no goal of achieving any result. In crimes against the person there is always a specific goal. If an act is committed using a weapon, then it is prepared in advance and used specifically for its intended purpose.

The difference between hooliganism and vandalism

How to legally correctly distinguish between hooliganism and vandalism follows from paragraph 15 of the said resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court. According to the document, the key difference between hooliganism and vandalism is that the consequences of the latter are damage to property through desecration of buildings and other structures or damage to property in public places (including transport).

In cases where the perpetrators, according to the conclusions of law enforcement officers, committed acts containing signs of both vandalism (Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and hooliganism, the act must be qualified under the combination of both articles of the Russian Criminal Code.

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Hooliganism and property crime

Hooliganism is similar to many crimes. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Article 167, provides an explanation of crimes against property, which are often confused with hooligan acts. Intentional damage (damage) to someone else's property is characterized by certain signs:

• purposeful destruction or damage to property;
• the object is property relations;
• The motives for such actions are of an everyday, moral, economic nature.

With hooliganism, such signs are not observed. Here, too, other people's property can be destroyed, but the object is public order. The motives for such a crime are aimed only at violating the established public order, and not at causing harm to the property of a particular person. The task of law enforcement officers is to correctly classify crimes and classify them as hooligan or personal. Otherwise, there is a violation of the main principle of criminal law, which is the fairness of punishment for the crime committed.

Preventive actions

Considering the fact that hooliganism carries with it an almost unjustified surge of aggression, in order to prevent such actions, it is advisable for society to pay more attention to preventive measures to prevent this type of crime leading to criminal liability. To do this, we need to clearly identify the reasons that lead to inappropriate behavior in the form of hooliganism and try to exclude them from the life of our society. The reasons contributing to the increase in hooliganism statistics are:

• low level of education and culture as a result of poor upbringing;
• easy access to alcohol, the use of which in itself often leads to inappropriate behavior in society;
• inability to spend quality leisure time and an uncontrollable desire for thrills;
• feeling of impunity.

The rampant hooliganism occurs in a society that pays little attention to the education of the younger generation. Low income levels also have a huge impact, which is why full-fledged leisure is often unavailable. Given these factors, society must understand that the main responsibility for the hooligan behavior of its members lies with it, and everything possible must be done to reduce the number of people prone to hooliganism, be it petty or malicious.