Several years ago, in Russian criminal legislation, insulting the personality of any individual or legal entity in a public form was defined as a criminal act and implied fairly harsh penalties.
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Today, an offense of this nature is considered criminally only in cases where the honor and dignity of an official, judge, or military personnel is humiliated, and it is related to the professional activity of the person. In other cases, the violator faces administrative liability.
Article for insulting a person
Until the beginning of 2012, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation had Article 130, violation of which resulted in criminal liability for insult to personality. Currently, the law has become more lenient towards lovers of obscene statements. Now, for insulting a person, administrative article 5.61 of the Code of Administrative Offenses is provided.
Criminal penalties are faced only in the following cases; if the injured person is a military man or another government official. But criminal liability for insult occurs only if the insult is related to the profession of the victim.
What is the article for insulting a person ? All issues related to insults to a person are regulated under 3 articles, depending on the situation and status of the victim:
- Article 319 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for cases of public insult while acting as a representative of the authorities.
- Article 336 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation regulates relations between military personnel and provides for penalties for offensive statements addressed to a particular person.
- Article 5.61 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation presents the corresponding administrative responsibility in other cases.
Find out what the statute of limitations is for civil cases?
What words are considered by law to be an insult?
Judicial practice tells us that in matters regarding personal insults, the most difficult moment is not even proof of what was done, but the process of distinguishing one situation from another. People are built differently and may not react to certain emotions in their direction in the same way. For one, the usual raising of one’s voice already means swearing, while for another, an outright verbal altercation is commonplace.
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That is why you should know the exact interpretation of the concept of insult by the letter of the law and be able to distinguish one conflict from another in time.
Based on Article 5.61 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, it can be said that, according to the law, words spoken by a person in relation to another person will be considered an insult only if the speech contains:
- Direct obscene language towards a person.
- Personal comparison of a person with someone else or using swear words in speech.
- Directed obscene expressions and other words with the aim of belittling the moral and ethical principles of a person.
Let's consider a simple example of 2 cases of neighbors talking:
- “Ivanov, your son just annoyed me. Not only does he walk around here with his friends and make noise like a seal, but yesterday he hit me right in the glass of the balcony with a ball. Is there something you can’t explain to him normally, or does he simply not want to understand normal things?”
- “Ivanov, your family is just a nightmare. You are just stupid and narrow-minded people, and you, as the leader of this gang, are the stupidest among them. Not only do I ask you not to touch the entrance and not litter it, but you also strained your stupid brain to persuade your son to persuade me to break the glass with a ball.”
In the first case, there is a conversation in a raised voice and using emotional phrases. However, there were no insults addressed to anyone here, and therefore this case cannot be considered an insult.
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The second option is more interesting. There are obvious insults to the person, comparisons aimed at belittling morale and dignity. Dialogues of this format can be safely interpreted as violating the law and administrative liability is provided for them.
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Types of liability for vandalism and its difference from hooliganism
