The stages of committing a crime recognize certain stages in the development of criminal activity, which differ from each other in the nature of the commission of a socially dangerous act, reflecting the varying degrees of implementation by the perpetrator of criminal intent. Their selection is based on objective criteria:
- the moment of termination of criminal activity;
- the nature of the acts committed.
Criminal law distinguishes three stages of committing a crime :
- preparation to commit a crime;
- attempted crime;
- completed crime.
Preparation to commit a crime and attempted crime are recognized by criminal law as an unfinished crime (Part 2 of Article 29 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In the literature they are called preliminary criminal activity .
A crime is considered completed if the act committed by a person contains all the signs of a crime provided for by the Criminal Code (Part 1 of Article 29). The moment at which the crime ends is different and depends on the design of the crime.
