Question 2. Stages of qualification of crimes

Basics of classification of crimes

Definition 1
Qualification of a crime is an accurate criminal legal assessment of a specific socially dangerous act.

The basis of the qualification is that law enforcement agencies are engaged in establishing an exact correspondence between the signs of a socially dangerous act enshrined in criminal law and the actual violation committed.

The concept of qualification of crimes comes from the theory of criminal law. Qualification can be carried out by special bodies and officials, for example, investigators, investigators, prosecutors, judges, and other persons. For example, students studying a course in criminal law also engage in qualification, but it does not have the same legal consequences as qualifications performed by special subjects.

Are you an expert in this subject area? We invite you to become the author of the Directory Working Conditions

The legal basis for qualifying a crime is its composition. In order for a crime to be qualified as an act that is prohibited by criminal law under threat of punishment, it is necessary that four elements of the crime be present in the action of the criminal:

Object of crime. This is what the criminal encroaches on, protected civil, public, and state interests. The object may also include the victim, the subject of the crime.
Objective side. This is a socially dangerous act, socially dangerous consequences and a cause-and-effect relationship. And in some cases, it is enough to commit only a socially dangerous act for the offense to be considered completed. There are also truncated crimes that can be completed even before the commission of the act.
Subjective side. This is the guilty attitude of a person towards the crime he commits. The obligatory element is guilt, the optional signs are motive, goal, emotions.
Subject of the crime. This is a physically sane person who has committed a crime. The subject can be either general or special.

Finished works on a similar topic

Course work Qualification of crimes 480 ₽ Abstract Qualification of crimes 240 ₽ Test work Qualification of crimes 250 ₽

Receive completed work or specialist advice on your educational project Find out the cost

During the qualification of crimes, subjects engage in a mental logical process, which is carried out according to the laws and methods of formal logic. In particular, during qualification, techniques such as deduction, induction, synthesis, analysis, etc. are used. Qualification is always carried out during the investigation of a specific crime; without it it is impossible to determine the presence of a crime.

Figure 1. Classification of crimes. Author24 - online exchange of student work

Qualification of crimes and issues of judicial interpretation

1.4. Qualification by elements of the crime

Qualification of crimes is the establishment and legal consolidation of an exact correspondence between the signs of a socially dangerous act committed and the signs of a crime provided for by a specific article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code. It is important to determine the sequence for establishing such correspondence. A traditional practice has developed according to which the qualification of crimes begins with an analysis of the object of the attack, then the characteristics of the act itself are identified, i.e., the scope and content of the objective side are determined. Next, all the signs of the subject of the crime and the content of the subjective side (form of guilt, motive and purpose) are identified. This scheme allows us to establish similarities or differences both between the committed act and the legal model, and between related acts that are externally similar in a number of ways.

Qualification according to the object of encroachment.

The object of the crime is the main element of the crime. Any commission of a socially dangerous act provided for by criminal law involves a violation of someone’s protected interests. There are no objectless crimes. Interests, ultimately, are the relationships that develop in society, the state, and between citizens regarding something. Criminal law protects most of the social relations, but knowledge of theory and practice is required in order to, in the process of qualification, accurately establish which social relations or their group were violated, who was harmed or a real threat of harm was created.

For the correct application of the law, it is necessary to be able to logically determine the generic, specific and direct objects of the crime. When qualifying, it should be remembered that the Special Part of the Criminal Code is differentiated into sections and chapters, and the criteria for such differentiation are generic and specific objects (the generic object is indicated in the title of the section of the Special Part of the Criminal Code - personality, economics, etc., and the specific object, as a rule , is indicated in the title of the chapter included in one or another section of the Special Part of the Criminal Code - life and health, property; for example, the secret theft of someone else's property - theft - is qualified under Article 158 of the Criminal Code, where the generic object is the economy, and the specific object is property). In some cases, the distinction between related and sometimes identical acts is made by generic or specific object (theft of narcotic drugs is qualified not under Article 158 of the Criminal Code, but under Article 229 of the Criminal Code, since the specific object is not property, but public health).

Within the framework of a specific crime, it is always necessary to establish the direct object of the attack - a specific benefit, interest, legal establishment. The direct object, as a rule, is named or implied in the disposition of the article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code (for example, Article 105 of the Criminal Code implies human life, Article 158 of the Criminal Code refers to the property of a specific subject). It should be remembered that some articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code indicate specific items in relation to or in relation to which a crime is committed (other people's property, documents, weapons, etc.). In such cases, it is incorrect to identify the direct object and the subject of the crime. The object, according to the precise remark of B. A. Kurinov, is only a material form, a condition for the existence of a certain object of encroachment[21]. Very often, the direct object is not disclosed in the text of the law, but information about it is contained in the description of other features (the subject of the crime, the identity of the victims, the place where the crime was committed, etc.).

The process of logical establishment of the object of the crime and its types cannot be broken; everything happens in dialectical unity and interconnection.

The object of the crime may, in exceptional cases, become a criterion for making a final decision on the case (for example, the person who committed the theft of someone else’s property has been identified, but the owner of the property has not been identified. The absence of the object of the crime gives the right to conclude that there is no corpus delicti).

In many cases, a socially dangerous act causes harm or threatens to cause harm to several immediate objects at once. In this regard, in the theory of criminal law, an additional direct object is identified. For example, robbery - Art. 162 of the Criminal Code - simultaneously encroaches on a person’s property and on his life or health. An additional object is always indicated in the disposition of the article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code along with the main one. They also call an optional direct object, which manifests itself, as a rule, within the framework of a qualified crime. The object of a crime is only one of the elements of a crime, therefore its establishment when analyzing criminal behavior cannot be considered in isolation from other elements and signs; this is only the beginning for further qualification, the main goal of which is to establish the truth in a criminal case[22].

Very often, issues of qualification of crimes are related to the doctrine of the victim. The signs of the victim do not form an independent element of the crime, but in some cases they are of decisive importance and qualitatively complement the objective and subjective signs of the crime, which ultimately determine the conditions and boundaries of criminal liability. For example, in Art. 105, 106, 123, 126, 131, 132, 150–153 of the Criminal Code and others, such characteristics of the victim as gender and age are highlighted. In Art. 206, 240, 277, 295, 298, 317–319 of the Criminal Code and others refer to signs that characterize the social and official position of the victim. In these cases, we can talk about a “special victim,” and the legislator uses this technique in order to more clearly differentiate criminal liability.

Qualification based on the objective side of the crime.

To qualify a crime on the objective side means to establish identity between the external side of a socially dangerous act, i.e., an act of human behavior committed in the objective world, and the objective side of the corresponding crime. Of decisive importance in this process is the characteristics of a socially dangerous, criminally unlawful act that causes harm to protected interests or threatens to cause such harm.

Based on the theory of corpus delicti, when analyzing criminal behavior, we must first establish the presence of mandatory signs of the objective side (the act, harmful consequences and the causal relationship between them). These signs are more consistent with crimes with a material component, for which the end point is considered to be the onset of harmful consequences, identified by the legislator in the disposition. Other elements of crimes are formulated by the legislator as formal, in which the obligatory sign of the objective side is only a socially dangerous act. A crime with such elements is considered completed at the moment the act itself is committed (for example, provided for in Article 129 of the Criminal Code). In almost every crime, it is necessary to establish optional signs of the objective side: place, time, method and circumstances of the crime. When these optional features are indicated in the disposition of the article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code, then they are recognized as mandatory and they must be identified and proven when assessing the committed act.

The act itself (action or inaction) contains essential information for the person performing the qualification. Firstly, a conclusion will be made about whether the act is minor, whether it is caused by a circumstance that excludes its criminality. Secondly, the characteristics and signs of the act are set out differently in the dispositions of the articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code. When qualifying socially dangerous acts, the signs of which are expressed in descriptive dispositions, a simple comparison of the legislative structure with the signs of the actually committed act is required (for example, Article 137 of the Criminal Code - illegal collection or dissemination of information about the private life of a person, constituting his personal or family secret, without his consent or dissemination of this information in a public speech, publicly displayed work or the media).

If the legislator uses a blanket disposition, then in order to correctly determine the signs of the objective side of the crime, it is necessary to turn to other regulations, which set out certain rules and restrictions, the violation and non-compliance of which is one of the forms of the act (for example, Article 264 of the Criminal Code). In a number of cases, the blanket disposition obliges the person conducting the investigation to refer not only to other regulations, but also to reference books, dictionaries, and documents of a scientific and practical nature (Articles 132, 272–274 of the Criminal Code).

In most cases, a socially dangerous act is committed through action, but criminal inaction is also possible. If an action is an external act of active behavior of a person, which includes not only body movements, but also verbal, written form, then inaction is a passive form of behavior, i.e. failure to perform certain actions (for example, Article 293 of the Criminal Code - negligence of an official ). Theory and practice have developed a number of conditions under which inaction can be characterized as criminal: a person was obliged to act in a certain way; the person had a real opportunity to perform the necessary actions; difficulties that interfere with the implementation of actions are surmountable.

The harmful consequences that occur as a result of committing a criminal act are also the most important feature of the objective side. Firstly, they act as a connecting link between the object of the attack and the objective party. Secondly, their reflection in the disposition of the article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code allows us to define this crime as material. This, in turn, significantly affects the qualification: the absence of harmful consequences when they are enshrined in law excludes the qualification of an act as a completed crime, and in some cases excludes the criminality of the act altogether. For example: in case of deliberate destruction or damage to someone else’s property (Part 1 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code), it was possible to prevent significant damage in time. In this case, the actions will be qualified as an attempt. However, illegal banking activities (Article 172 of the Criminal Code) will be considered a crime only if the act caused major damage to protected interests. In the absence of such consequences, the act is qualified under other branches of law.

In theory, harmful consequences are divided into tangible and intangible. Material consequences include property damage and physical damage caused to an individual. For a more precise classification, the law distinguishes several types of property damage (for example, in crimes of an economic nature, they distinguish between causing significant damage, as well as large and especially large amounts). In turn, the degree of severity of physical harm is a criterion for distinguishing many crimes (Articles 111–116 of the Criminal Code distinguish between grave harm to health, moderate harm, minor harm and beatings).

Intangible consequences include: harm caused to the interests of the individual (moral, political, in the field of constitutional, labor and other rights and freedoms); harm caused in the sphere of activity of state, non-state and public organizations (for example, Article 290 of the Criminal Code - taking a bribe, Article 201 of the Criminal Code - abuse of power). In a number of cases, the legislator uses evaluative concepts to characterize harmful consequences (for example, Articles 126–128, 131 of the Criminal Code and others call “other grave consequences”). In each specific case, the consequences are recognized or not recognized as such after they are assessed by law enforcement entities. As a rule, the meaning and content of evaluative concepts are explained by the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in its decisions. For example, in accordance with the explanations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, death and suicide of the victim, mental illness resulting from rape were recognized as other grave consequences of rape[23].

In some cases, the law provides for additional harmful consequences. Their peculiarity is that they are not directly indicated in the disposition of the article, but are implied based on the general meaning. For example, Art. 162 of the Criminal Code provides for criminal liability for robbery, as a result of which harm is caused to property relations (the main direct object), but, in addition, harm can be caused to the life and health of the owner or third parties (an additional object).

Correct determination of the legal significance of harmful consequences has significant practical significance. If harmful consequences are recognized as additional, this means that they are “inside, within the framework of this crime”[24] and additional qualifications under other articles of the Criminal Code are not required.

An important condition for the correct classification of crimes is the establishment of a causal relationship. It is necessary to understand that this is one of the existing categories of dialectics. In other words, this is a relationship between phenomena in which one phenomenon (cause) naturally, with internal necessity, generates and causes another phenomenon (effect). Cause-and-effect dependencies can be necessary, internally logical and random. But only a necessary causal connection can become a sign of the objective side of the crime. An accidental causal connection cannot be relied upon to justify criminal liability for an objectively socially dangerous result caused by a person’s actions, because the person’s actions in such cases are not the direct cause of the consequences[25].

The official who classifies the crime must remember a number of conditions that make it possible to clearly establish the existence of a causal relationship: a) criminal behavior fully corresponds to the nature of the action (inaction) specified in the criminal law; b) it precedes the result in time; c) is a necessary condition and contains a real possibility of its occurrence; d) it is natural, that is, with internal necessity, without the intervention of forces extraneous to a given development of events, it causes the onset of a criminal result.

If, for example, the victim died of a heart attack after being stabbed in the chest, then there is a high probability that there is no causal connection between the actions and the death. Thus, the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR did not establish the existence of a causal connection between the infliction of less serious bodily injuries on the victim Z. and the occurrence of his death, since the occurrence of death was not due to the severity of the injury, but to the serious illness from which the victim suffered. From the case materials it is clear that the accused did not know about the serious illness of the victim and could not assume that inflicting less serious bodily harm would lead to a fatal outcome[26].

The Judicial Panel made a similar decision in the case of D., who was found guilty by the district court of violating traffic safety rules that resulted in grave consequences. As stated in the decision of the board, the driver is not subject to criminal liability if his violation of traffic rules is not causally related to the accident[27]. It is important to remember that next to the causal relationship there is also such a concept as chance - also a phenomenon of objective reality, but with a different qualitative content. The case (incident) does not allow us to talk about such a sign of a crime as guilt, and according to Art. 28 of the Criminal Code, innocent causing of harm excludes liability.

When establishing a causal relationship, a special role is played by experts - specialists in a particular field of knowledge who help clearly determine the dependence of negative consequences on the actions of a particular person.

For the qualification of crimes, such optional signs of the objective side as time, place, method, and setting of the crime are also important. When drawing up criminal procedural documents that reflect the result of qualification (resolution to initiate a criminal case, decision to charge as an accused, etc.), the designation of some optional features is mandatory, since they are included in the subject of proof (Article 73 of the Code of Criminal Procedure) . But from a criminal legal point of view, these signs have several meanings. Firstly, if an optional feature is included by the legislator in the disposition of an article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code, then it is a mandatory feature of this crime. Its absence in a socially dangerous act committed excludes the possibility of criminal prosecution under this article. Secondly, if these signs form a qualified corpus delicti, then their absence in the act does not exclude criminal liability, but means that the act does not contain a qualified, but a simple corpus delicti. Thirdly, if these signs are not specified in the article of the law, they do not affect qualifications, but can be recognized as aggravating circumstances. For example, in Part 1 of Art. 161 of the Criminal Code (robbery), the method of theft is a mandatory sign of the crime, in paragraph “c” of Part 2 of Art. 161 of the Criminal Code, the qualifying feature is the place where the theft occurred (dwelling).

Qualification based on the subjective side of the crime.

Qualification on the subjective side involves a thorough clarification of a person’s mental attitude to the socially dangerous act committed, the harmful consequences and other important aspects of his criminal behavior. The mental attitude of a person who has committed an act prohibited by criminal law, within the framework of criminal law, is possible only in the form of intent or negligence. In addition, important components of the subjective side are motive and purpose, which, depending on the circumstances, can be both mandatory and optional features.

The form of guilt significantly influences the qualification of crimes, especially those with similar objective characteristics (for example, Articles 105 and 109; Articles 111, 112 and 118; Articles 167 and 168 of the Criminal Code). Therefore, when qualifying crimes, it is important to remember that the content of the forms of guilt (intellectual and volitional aspects) is disclosed in the General Part of the Criminal Code, but in relation to the material composition (Articles 25, 26 of the Criminal Code). It seems that it would be more correct to consolidate the content of intent at the legislative level in relation to the formal composition. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the correctness of the decision to establish a rule according to which it is possible to accurately say that a crime was committed with a careless form of guilt (Part 2 of Article 24 of the Criminal Code). For example, the disposition of Art. 168 is formulated as follows: “Destruction or damage to another’s property on a large scale, committed by careless handling of fire or other sources of increased danger,” which allows us to conclude that this crime was committed only due to frivolity or negligence.

Correct determination of guilt allows: a) to resolve the issue of the presence or absence of corpus delicti in the act; b) exclude the possibility of objective imputation, as well as unjustified prosecution of persons who have committed careless crimes for intentional acts; c) distinguish between actions that are objectively similar; d) resolve the issue of responsibility for special forms of criminal activity - preparation, attempt, complicity[28]. For qualification, it is important to divide intent into direct and indirect. It should be borne in mind that a formal crime can only be committed with direct intent. The intellectual moment of direct intent in this case is characterized by the fact that the person is aware of the socially dangerous nature of his act, and the volitional moment is that the person wants to commit this act prohibited by law. We are talking about crimes such as slander, insult, giving a bribe and receiving a bribe (Articles 129, 130, 290 and 291 of the Criminal Code), and a number of others.

Crimes with material components require a more thorough analysis of intent. Some of them can be committed with both direct and indirect intent, which, ultimately, does not have much significance for qualification (as a rule, indirect intent in such crimes is the result of the lack of proof of the volitional moment of direct intent). But taking into account a different classification of intent, the assessment of a criminal act may change. A crime is committed only with direct intent, if the intent is premeditated and specified. If there is a mistake in the object of the attack, the qualification depends on the direction of intent. The issue is resolved similarly in judicial practice[29].

If the intent is not specified, then the qualification will depend on the type of consequences that occurred. A number of crimes have been formulated by the legislator using keywords that characterize guilt in the form of direct intent (for example, Article 299 of the Criminal Code - knowingly

innocent to criminal liability, Art.
301 of the Criminal Code - obviously
illegal detention). Direct intent is evident in those crimes where motive and purpose are identified as mandatory features (theft, malfeasance), as well as in crimes with qualified elements, where the intent of the perpetrator must cover special forms of committing a crime.

In a number of cases, the occurrence of harmful consequences due to negligence is provided as a qualifying feature in intentional crimes. Such an act is called a crime with two forms of guilt in criminal law. Previously, such a symbiosis was discussed only in the theory of criminal law; in the Criminal Code of 1996, the characteristic of a double form of guilt is enshrined in Art. 27, but at the same time the legislator made the correct addition, indicating that in general such a crime is recognized as committed intentionally. A thorough analysis of such acts makes it possible to timely distinguish them from both intentional and careless crimes. For example, if the blow of a knife intentionally caused grievous bodily harm to the victim, which resulted in a fatal result, which was covered by the intent of the perpetrator, then the act should be classified as murder. If, when causing death, there is no intent to cause any harm to health, then the act is assessed as causing death by negligence. And only when there is a combination of intent to cause grievous harm to health and negligence in relation to death, the act is covered by the concept of “a crime with two forms of guilt” (Part 4 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code).

It is important to distinguish between a reckless crime, especially one committed through negligence, and innocent harm. An incident occurs when the person who committed it was not aware and, due to the circumstances of the case, could not be aware of the social danger of his actions, or did not foresee the possibility of socially dangerous consequences occurring and, due to the circumstances of the case, should not or could not have foreseen them (nulum crimen est in cansa )[thirty]. A typical example was given at one time by N. S. Tagantsev: “Poisoning will be accidental, as soon as the poisoner did not know and could not know that the substance he was given was poisonous, or even if he knew that under certain conditions this substance could have the property of poison , but could not even imagine that such conditions existed in this case”[31].

When analyzing the signs of the subjective side of a crime, one cannot help but mention the possibility of a person’s erroneous ideas about the nature of the act he is committing. Depending on the nature and type of errors, the qualification of actions will be different. In case of a legal error, a person’s mental attitude to his behavior does not affect qualifications. It depends on the illegality, that is, on the enshrinement of the act in criminal law. In the case of a factual error, the qualification depends on the direction of intent and the purpose of the criminal behavior.

Qualification according to the subject of the crime.

The main characteristics of the subject of a crime are: natural person, sanity, reaching the legal age. These signs can be called mandatory for all crimes and necessary for a reasonable qualification. If the harm is caused by the actions of animals, minors or the insane, then there is no corpus delicti. But when harm is caused by animals, minors or the insane, who were used by a specific person who meets all the characteristics of a subject of a crime, then he is recognized as the perpetrator of the crime, but more precisely, his actions are regarded as mediocre harm.

Declaring a person insane presupposes the absence of a crime, but not the most socially dangerous act. The body of inquiry, the investigator, instead of an indictment, draws up a resolution to send the case to court for the application of compulsory medical measures (Article 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). The court is obliged to consider in detail the circumstances of the commission of a socially dangerous act and pass not a sentence, but a ruling on exemption from criminal liability and the application of compulsory medical measures (Article 443 of the Code of Criminal Procedure).

It is very important to determine the exact age of the person who committed a socially dangerous act. In accordance with Part 1 of Art. 20 of the Criminal Code are subject to criminal liability for persons who were 16 years old before committing a crime. Part 2 Art. 20 of the Criminal Code contains an exhaustive list of crimes for which responsibility begins at the age of 14. When qualifying, it is important to clearly establish the date, month and year of birth, since the law does not contain explanations about the moment when a person is considered to have reached the appropriate age. Law enforcement authorities are guided by the explanations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated February 14, 2000 “On judicial practice in cases of juvenile crimes”[32], according to which a person is considered to have reached the age of criminal responsibility not on his birthday, but after the end of the day on which this day falls, i.e. from zero hours of the next day. When establishing age by a forensic medical examination, his birthday should be considered the last day of the year named by experts, and when determining age, the minimum and maximum number of years should be based on the minimum age of such a person assumed by the examination.

It is quite obvious that the actions of a person aged 14 to 16 years cannot be qualified under those articles of the Criminal Code where the crime requires the age of the subject to be 16 years old. Thus, if a minor at the age of 14 took part in a gang attack, his actions do not constitute a crime under Art. 209 of the Criminal Code. But if the actions of such a person contain elements of another crime included in the list of Part 2 of Art. 20 of the Criminal Code (during the attack a murder, or robbery, or robbery was committed), then his actions must be qualified under the relevant articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code. Another example: a minor at the age of 15 commits the murder of a law enforcement officer in order to obstruct legitimate activities to protect public order and ensure public safety (Article 317 of the Criminal Code). Responsibility for this crime begins at the age of 16, but this does not mean that a 15-year-old teenager will be exempt from criminal liability. In this case, liability arises according to the general norm, i.e., according to paragraph “b” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code - murder of a person in connection with the performance of official activities by this person, since responsibility for this crime begins at the age of 14.

At the same time, crimes with privileged elements have their own specifics. So, according to Art. 20 of the Criminal Code, liability for murder with mitigating circumstances begins at the age of 16. The problem arises of the qualification of such acts committed by minors aged 14 to 16 years. At first glance, if a special norm indicates responsibility from the age of 16, then the liability of persons who have reached 14 years of age and those who have not reached 16 should arise according to the general norm, i.e., according to Art. 105 of the Criminal Code. But taking into account the qualification rules developed by the science of criminal law, and guided by the explanations of the highest judicial authorities, in such cases there is no corpus delicti in the actions of a person under 16 years of age[33]. We believe that this is an absolutely correct interpretation.

In a number of crimes, the legislator provides the subject of the crime with additional characteristics. We are talking about a special subject of a crime. In the theory of criminal law, there are various classifications of characteristics of a special subject, but the most significant for qualification are the following: gender, age, profession, position. In one case, the characteristics of a special subject are enshrined in the norms of the Special Part of the Criminal Code (the concept of a person performing managerial functions in a commercial or other organization is given in the note to Article 201 of the Criminal Code; the concept of an official is given in the note to Article 285 of the Criminal Code; the concept of a representative of authority - in the note to Article 318 of the Criminal Code). In another case, these signs are contained in some other regulatory act, which implies a blanket disposition (for example, Article 203 of the Criminal Code names as subjects of a crime managers or employees of a private security or detective service, the concept of which is defined in the Law of the Russian Federation of March 11, 1992 "On private detective and security activities in the Russian Federation" as amended on December 27, 2009)[34].

There are cases when, to accurately determine the characteristics of a special subject, they resort to judicial interpretation. For example, according to the explanation of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated June 15, 2004 “On judicial practice in cases of crimes provided for in Articles 131 and 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” sexual intercourse should be understood as sexual intercourse between a man and a woman[35]. Thus, the subject of rape (the perpetrator of the crime) can be a male person.

When qualifying crimes with a special subject, it is important to take into account the following aspects: firstly, when the legislator includes the signs of a special subject in the main structure of the crime, they become mandatory, and in their absence a person cannot be held criminally liable under this article; secondly, the signs of a special subject can be included in a qualified crime that provides for more severe liability (for example, Part 1 of Article 109 of the Criminal Code provides for liability for causing death by negligence, and Part 2 of this article provides for increased liability if a crime is committed person due to improper performance of his professional duties). If any sane person who has reached the age of 16 can be held liable for causing death by negligence, then in the second case it is necessary to prove the occurrence of death through the fault of a special subject (doctors, firefighters, police officers, etc.).

Stages of qualification of crimes

Qualifying a crime is not only a logical process, but also giving a legal assessment of socially dangerous acts. Qualification acts as a result of the evaluative and cognitive mental activity of the law enforcement officer. Ultimately, the qualification of a crime must contain an exact indication of the paragraph, part, article of both the General and Special Parts of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The process of qualifying crimes includes several stages that occur in the following sequence:

Determination of the circumstances that characterize the object and objective side of the crime.
Determination of data that characterizes the subject and subjective side of the crime.
Search for a rule of law that best suits the given crime. For this purpose, it is necessary to establish the correspondence between the actual circumstances of the crime committed and the elements of the crime that are provided for in a specific article.
Consolidation of qualifications by any regulatory document or procedural act. For example, if a criminal case is initiated, the investigator issues a resolution to initiate a criminal case, where he makes a reference to the relevant article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, thereby determining the qualification of the crime.

The classification of the crime may change during the criminal investigation. For example, the suspect himself can talk about new circumstances of the crime committed, name accomplices, and point out specific instruments for committing the crime. In addition, the victim's opinion can also play a role. For example, if the victim believes that significant damage was caused to him by theft and proves this, the theft will be reclassified from simple to qualified. The number of episodes in a criminal case also affects qualifications.

Stages

The job description provides for the need to select standards during qualification.

Including:

an analysis is carried out regarding the actions taken, contradictions with the elements of crimes are identified;
the task indicates the legality of actions when the signs are established precisely, and not in an approximate form;
control provisions provide for the establishment of all signs of encroachment, which are enshrined in the article;
the decision on the issue of competition between norms is voluntary;
safety also includes whether the action is completed or not.

The literature provides several types of qualifications. The Code of Administrative Offenses also assumes similar positions.

Authorities must go through certain qualification stages. Initially, you need to put forward a version of what happened. This version is of a legal nature and provides for the establishment of a norm in accordance with which the act was committed.

The first stage ends with the issuance of an act through which the case is initiated. After this, the second stage begins. It ends after the person is brought in as an accused. There may be two, three or more such persons. The act in question can be issued only after all the circumstances of the crime have been established and evidence has been obtained. Who the culprit is does not matter; it can be a military man or any other person.

The third stage begins after the appearance of the accused in the case and ends simultaneously with the drawing up of the indictment. At this time, the person conducting the investigation substantiates the conclusions regarding the guilt of the persons. During the stage under consideration, new information may appear in the materials, which in some situations leads to re-presentation of charges.

The fourth stage is formed during the trial. It ends after the verdict is rendered. This period involves analysis and comparison of facts in the case. Next, the last, fifth, stage is implemented, which is represented by cassation and supervision. The initial decision in this case may change.

General and special rules

The literature identifies three general rules that apply to the process of qualifying criminal offenses. They are prescribed in the legislation and reflect the factual basis of the process under consideration.

They are that:

actions committed by the perpetrator are enshrined at the legislative level;
the act contains a certain composition;
the qualification process has a direct relationship with establishing the actual nature of the incident.

The listed rules are aimed at comparing the composition of the act. If there are doubts, insufficiencies or contradictions, everything will be used in favor of the guilty person.

Particular rules are fixed by defining the framework of one composition. Such rules are associated with certain characteristics, including complicity, imaginary defense, subjective characteristics of the act, or an unfinished act.

If we talk about the subjective characteristics, it can be noted that in this case the act is committed by a person in the age category from 14 to 16 years. When an action is committed that falls under two standards, and according to one of them you can be charged from 14 years old, according to the other - from 16 years old, one article will be applied.

When an act is aimed at several objects, provided that the perpetrator wanted to harm only one of them, it is assessed according to the direction of the intent.

If the article provides for punishment for a special subject, then the commission of such an act by a person who does not have such characteristics is assessed as simple complicity. Punishment is imposed according to the code. If there is an excess of the performer, he is responsible for what he actually did, the other members of the group are responsible within the limits of what they intended.

As an example, we can cite the verdict of the Moscow court. According to it, citizen K. was found guilty of committing actions reflected in Articles 161 and 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The culprit committed several crimes under various paragraphs of these articles. When considering the case in court, it was established that the actions committed by K. were partially assessed incorrectly. The court sent the criminal case for additional investigation, pointing out the presence of inaccuracies.

Logical Basics

The significance of the category under consideration is difficult to overestimate. It is the result of the mental activity of persons applying legislation in the field of criminal proceedings

In this case, logic is given due attention. Logical laws are objective in nature; they are formed regardless of the will and desires of people

Their focus is related to the stability, certainty, and quality of objects that exist in reality.

Logical laws, rules and other areas occupy an important place in qualifications. In this sense, the process is understood as a transition from one form of knowledge to another

Knowledge will be divided into initial and subsequent.

The process has some features:

is built on the basis of deductive inferences;
presented in the form of mental activity;
moves from the general to the specific.

Law enforcers use a form expressed in a simple syllogism. As a result, two judgments are formed. They are of a generally affirmative nature.

Meaning of qualification

There are several meanings for the correct classification of a crime:

General social. It is envisaged that the qualification process has a connection with the consolidation of laws and legal order. The interests of individuals are ensured, justice is restored in the state. In addition, attention is paid to the moment of formation of the rule of law. All of the above provisions provide that the country has implemented a criminal policy.
Criminal law. It assumes that correctly defined qualifications guarantee compliance with the laws that are used in justice. There is an expression of nature that has legal significance. The rights of citizens are guaranteed. Provides that criminal law must be applied correctly. It is possible to realistically assess the level of fight against criminal activity in the country.

The provisions under consideration collectively characterize the qualification process. They are used to determine criminal trends that exist in a particular state.

The meaning of the crime

Qualifying a crime is a complex process in which objective and subjective characteristics of the crime are determined. The disposition of norms influences the process under consideration.

The composition features traditional positions, including:

Objective side.
Subject.
Subjective side.
An object.

The concepts of the listed characteristics are considered in the theory of criminal law.

In any case, the crime is committed using all of the listed characteristics. Otherwise it doesn't exist. A norm can have a double meaning, therefore, through the described signs, the content of criminal wrongfulness is revealed. This is the essence of qualification.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that a simplified consideration of the qualifying value is not allowed. The process is presented as a creative act that compares real actions and ideal meaning

The advantage of qualification is that it is accompanied by various factors that combine life experience, cognition and intuition.