What is the essence and purpose of criminal punishment?

general information

What is punishment in criminal law?

This is a certain type of punishment or coercion to suffer actions in order to achieve a specific goal of re-education , and not for the purpose of the fact of infliction itself.

Punishment provides for the deprivation of a person who has broken the law of a certain type of benefit . Punishment is aimed at any suffering of the criminal for the unlawful actions that were committed by him. But any type of punishment for the criminal is assigned depending on certain factors , for example, the severity of the crime, the presence of mitigating circumstances, etc.

Any punishment carries a certain shade of retribution , but in no case is it; punishment is regulated directly by law .

The essence of any punishment lies in punishment , that is, it is a measure of response of a criminal nature and is recognized in actions that are directly provided for by law, such as imprisonment for a specified period or restriction of any right.

Grounds for assigning liability

The grounds for applying a measure of responsibility to a convicted person are the presence of elements of a crime in the actions he committed, as well as the proven guilt of the convicted person.

Proof of guilt is carried out during the trial, where all necessary and important circumstances are examined in detail (in particular, witness testimony, physical evidence, for example, traces, fingerprints and other points indicating that the accused was involved in the commission of illegal acts) .

When assigning responsibility, other important circumstances are taken into account, such as:

• the nature of the unlawful act and the degree of its danger to society;
• age and personal characteristics of the accused;
• the number of people involved in committing illegal actions (for example, if the crime was committed not by one person, but by a group, this is the basis for the application of more stringent sanctions);
• the motivation that prompted the offender to commit a crime;
• the possibility of achieving certain goals through punishment.

The essence of criminal punishment

Two concepts such as crime and punishment have a very close connection.

Punishment can be considered as a response on behalf of the state to an act of a criminal nature that was committed by a certain person.

As for the essence of criminal punishment , it lies in the punishability of the crime, thus the criminal law itself is a kind of way of manipulating human behavior.

Criminal punishment is, in its essence, a coercive punishment . That is, on the part of law enforcement agencies, the application of punishment , and the criminal must unquestioningly obey it, thereby depriving him of freedom and certain types of rights .

The very essence of criminal punishment carries a certain punitive process , which will differ for different types of punishment provided, and will take into account all factors related to a particular case.

To assign a certain punishment to a criminal, it is necessary to consider certain factors that relate to the convicted person :

• The gravity of his crime;
• Personal properties of the criminal.

That is, the convicted person can be punished in the following ways :

• Complete isolation from society through imprisonment;
• A criminal may be limited only in certain labor rights;
• The offender may be deprived of certain material benefits, such as a monthly salary;
• And in the most severe cases, law enforcement agencies have the right to take the life of a criminal.

The punishment and its measures directly depend on the trial ; the court has the final say regarding not only the punishment itself, but also its terms.

Minors

Juvenile offenders do not have any privileges, they are not subject to special punishment, they are held accountable as a general rule .

The legislation does not consider special mitigation of punishment for minors. The only thing that can mitigate the punishment for such criminals is a reduction in penalties .

Minors who violate the law will not be sentenced to death or life imprisonment .

Also, they will not include types of punishment provided for another category of citizens who have a different status from them, for example, minors cannot be deprived of the right to hold a position , etc.

For juvenile offenders there are such types of punishments as:

• A monetary fine for the crime;
• Deprivation of the right to engage in certain activities, if the status of a criminal allows it;
• Encumbrance for compulsory work;
• Encumbrance for correctional work;
• Arrest;
• Imprisonment for a period established by the court.

If an adult criminal has received a fine, then it cannot exceed 50 thousand rubles , or must be equal to the income of the minor, if any, for a certain time, usually the period does not exceed 6 months.

If the offender does not have any income, then the fine is attributed to his parents or legal representatives .

As for the deprivation of the right to engage in any activity, most often this rule does not apply to persons under the age of majority, but if the law provides for compulsory work as a punishment, then it can last from 40 to 160 hours, depending on the severity of the crime . These works include activities that minor citizens can handle.

Corrective labor may be assigned for a longer period, which can last from 60 days to 1 year . With such punishments, all work complies with the standards regarding the labor rights of minors.

If a similar category of criminals is arrested, then the age of the child is taken into account; persons over 16 years of age can be arrested . And the period of arrest is not very long, it ranges from 1 to 4 months .

If a minor offender is deprived of his liberty, then the term of his imprisonment can be a term that will not exceed 10 years , but if the offender has not reached 16 years , then the maximum term is reduced to 6 years . But this punishment will follow a crime of a particularly serious nature.

Legislation does not have the right to replace one punishment with another for a juvenile offender if he evades responsibility.

When a court makes a decision on punishment for a minor, it takes into account many factors , including the following:

• In what conditions does a juvenile offender live?
• What is his development on the mental level, what are his personal characteristics;
• How much influence does his older relatives have on the criminal?

When assigning and executing a sentence to a minor, a complex sequence of actions is used :

• First of all, the resulting sentence must be reduced to the maximum amount imposed on the minor;
• The next step is to reduce the result in the event of an assassination attempt;
• Then, through the rules on mitigation of punishment in case of repentance, the punishment is subject to another reduction;
• Then the provision is taken into account, which states that the lower limit of punishment is subject to reduction by exactly half;
• The last step is to apply the general rules of punishment.

Coercive measures against minors

At the age of 14 to 18 years, an individual is considered a minor.

The following measures apply to minors:

• punishment;
• detention in closed educational institutions;
• forced education measures.

Confinement in closed institutions and forced education are, in fact, a milder measure of influence on minors.

Among the types of punishments applied to minors are:

1. Fine.
2. Restriction of freedom.
3. Deprivation of liberty.
4. Correctional and compulsory labor.
5. Prohibition of performing certain activities.

The impact on minors is mitigated; the death penalty is not applied to them. In combination with being a minor, mitigating circumstances include poor living conditions, lack of upbringing, unstable psyche and other personality characteristics.

Purposes of criminal punishment

The punishment imposed on the criminal, according to Article 43 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation , has certain goals . One of the goals of the execution of criminal penalties is certain final results, or certain achievements that arise from the criminal punishment .

This problem regarding the purposes of criminal punishment has always raised many questions and was controversial.

The very first mentions of such goals indicated that any punishment in one case or another should be some kind of retribution for the unlawful action committed . And it is for this reason that previously the punishment was imposed similar to the crime, so to speak, an eye for an eye .

compensation for expenses for damage caused began to be considered as the goals of punishment and all the consequences arising from it . a fine as a punishment , and its size depended on the severity of the crime.

, the death penalty and other types of punishment were absolutely not used .

Later, there was a different view on the purpose of punishment; the purpose should be to prevent the criminal from going down the same road again , committing a similar crime, thereby causing harm to others. But in no case should the goal inflict torture and physical damage on the convicted person, because this will not be able to undo the act already committed.

Then the goal was aimed at changing the criminal in every way, thereby putting him on the right path, so that his thoughts would not repeat what he had done .

Now there are several purposes of criminal punishment that are applicable in law enforcement agencies .

Interesting examples

In judicial practice, there have been cases where unexpected effects were achieved through the use of criminal coercion. During the hearing of the case of a mute rapist in Kazakhstan, he spoke. However, the miraculous healing was soon substantiated by medical examination. The criminal, mute since childhood, could still speak, although he had speech defects, and carefully hid his gift of speech, hoping for a mitigation of the sentence.

Some reasons for breaking the law are completely ridiculous.

Many people, without even knowing why, purchase spy gadgets:

• handle with geolocation system;
• a button with a video camera;
• watch with voice recorder.

Meanwhile, their use is illegal and can lead to serious consequences, for example, criminal prosecution.

A completely surprising incident happened to a man who, due to a breakdown of the ATM, was unable to withdraw $100. After the man left, the ATM dispensed money, which the old woman found and pocketed. This was recorded by the ATM control camera. Result: the old woman was accused of theft.

Problems of setting and implementing assigned tasks

The imposition of punishment and the application of penalties are designed to achieve certain goals. However, as can be seen from the current situation in our country, the implementation of such intentions is not always effective.

The warning purpose raises the most questions. Thus, many potential criminals hope that they will be able to avoid responsibility for their illegal actions; many of them, feeling their own impunity, commit crimes.

A factor such as latent crime is also important here. For example, a person living in unfavorable conditions is more prone to criminal behavior than others, however, the state does not take any effective measures to correct this situation.

The corrective goal is also not achieved in all cases.

According to statistics, every third criminal who has served a sentence in prison commits illegal acts again; this becomes a habitual way of life for him.

In addition, the conditions of detention in modern correctional facilities do not meet basic human requirements, and prolonged exposure to such situations contributes to the embitterment of prisoners. Thus, such punishment leads to the achievement of the wrong goal.

There are problems not only in the implementation of the goals of punishment, but also in their formulation and justification. First of all, such difficulties result from poor-quality legal documentation.

Thus, legislative norms contain too many general concepts that each person (judge, prosecutor) can interpret in their own way.

This fact is confirmed by the Resolution of the European Court of Human Rights, which notes that Russian legislation does not fully comply with the standards accepted in civil society.

Every crime committed entails responsibility. Punishment applied to a criminal always has specific goals.

Sanctions are designed to correct the behavior of the convicted person in order to prevent him from committing new crimes in the future. However, it is not always possible to achieve the set goals.

Concept and purposes of punishment:

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General information about the state of the fight against crime in the Russian Federation

The history of the emergence of criminal coercion is inextricably linked with the formation of the state. One of the lines in the Bible reads: “And his master took Joseph and put him in prison.”

Already during the times of Kievan Rus, punishments were applied to criminals:

• were kept in custody;
• killed;
• were subjected to physical torture.

Despite the use of cruel punitive measures, it was only in 1764 that the modern study of the issue of the legal justification of punishment in a published book began.

There are 1,297 prisons in Russia, housing 630,000 convicts. For comparison: in 2000, 1.93 million people were held in correctional colonies. Seven prisons are intended to house prisoners with life sentences.

According to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation on the state of crime, published in a periodical, in Russia the level of annual crime for the period from 2013 to 2022 fell from 2206.2 to 2058.5 thousand registered crimes. The peak occurred in 2015: crime was at the level of 2388.5 thousand or 1633 offenses per 100 thousand inhabitants. The change from 2013 to 2022 was 6.69%.

The indicated level of crime indicates ineffective work to achieve one of the important tasks - preventing violations of the law. A small drop in quantity is explained by economic or social factors.

Characteristics of goals

The application of a certain measure of responsibility against a criminal always has certain goals, such as:

1. Restoring justice.
   Every person who commits illegal actions must understand that this is always followed by an adverse consequence. Moreover, the purpose of sanctions is not revenge, but rather censure, public condemnation, and the application of certain restrictions for the convicted person.
2. Correcting the behavior of the convicted person. The restrictions applied are designed to correct certain negative manifestations of the criminal’s personality. In particular, while serving a sentence in places of deprivation of liberty, the criminal reconsiders his behavior and realizes that committing a crime always has negative consequences, first of all, for himself.

Preventive (precautionary purposes). This goal follows from the previous one. The criminal understands that any illegal act entails special responsibility, and the best way to avoid such consequences is not to commit new crimes. Preventive goals can be specific or general. The first option involves the use of educational, preventive measures of influence, the second is based on intimidation and psychological impact on the convicted person.

Insulation. This goal is applied only in extreme cases when correction of the convicted person is not possible. For example, if a person has committed a particularly serious crime, or there is a malicious relapse of illegal acts.