Types of crime motives, characteristic features

Criminal act Types of motives for crime owe their education to learned lawyers active even before the revolution.

Legislation has undergone more than one adjustment to criminal law, from Soviet times to modern Russia.

They came to the same result, emphasizing the importance in the investigation of a criminal act, this understanding of what prompted a person to decisively commit an offense, what is the motive of the criminal in such a commission, and whether the goal was achieved.

The idea of ​​motives in a legal concept

The classification of motives for a crime made it possible to identify the main components of guilt that led a person to commit an action. The separation of concepts is used to accurately define an offense in criminal law; its characteristic features are used. For example, physical influence by one person on another due to jealousy or revenge. At the same time, when investigating criminal offenses, they take into account signs that are significant in this direction and treat psychological motives with caution.

These include formations of actions with the following character:

• committing a crime in a base way - selfish, hooligan, with personal interest, out of envy, careerism
• offenses deprived of baseness due to the desire to stop the criminal attack, excess of self-defense, infliction of injury at the time of detention of the criminal

The judge considers all the motives provided by the investigator on the basis of investigative measures in order to find out the truth that prompted the citizen to commit certain actions.

Based on the motivation, the factual essence that was the reason for the criminal action is revealed.

If we divide the motives into types, we get the following picture:

• negative, characterized by antisocial parameters aggravated by aggravated circumstances
• indifferent by its definition, an apathetic person commits an act in a state of boredom or simply
• does not act when he sees that a situation may lead to the death of a certain person, but does nothing to save him
• positive - based on altruism and kindness, consideration of the reasons that influenced the offense can mitigate the punishment, but in no way exempts from criminal liability

For example, a nurse felt sorry for a hopelessly ill hospital patient; she saved him from suffering by giving him a lethal drug, from which the patient died. This case represents euthanasia, but is regarded as a banal murder.

Finding an outlet for personal passions in violating public order has a motive. It is not always easy to establish during the investigation of criminal cases; it is human nature to hide the true reason for committing offenses, and the investigator has to reveal the motives that prompted him to commit a crime in order to assess the gravity of the act.

Features of the second significant component of guilt

Purpose of the crime
The purpose of the crime is closely related to the motives for its commission.

To present their unity, it is necessary to consider some features of the terminology of jurisprudence.

Motives and goals belong to mental phenomena, adding the severity of guilt provides an opportunity to evaluate the crime from the subjective side.

In the scientific concept, a person sets a goal or desire to achieve something by a certain action in the future, and actively strives for this.

Criminal law also gives its definition, in which the perpetrator sets a criminal goal and achieves a result through a criminally unlawful act. The reasons that prompted one to commit an offense together with the desire to achieve this point have common characteristic parameters that are difficult to distinguish. Motives include internal drives, the forces of which control actions and indicate how a person relates to his offense.

The goal is guided by the desired result, which is created in a person’s thoughts; they direct him to cross the illegal line.

Based on the motive, an action is performed, where the goal gives an idea of ​​​​the consequences, which the perpetrator is aware of. Based on the motivation, they determine why a crime was committed, and the purpose gives the idea of ​​why it all happened. Therefore, when committing a deliberate act, motives and goals are considered as evidence of what happened.

The subjective side includes only socially dangerous areas, antisocial incidents that can affect the determination of the severity of guilt. As independent, psychological, subjective signs, motives and goals are in close connection, dependence, and only their unity will give an idea of ​​​​the behavior of a person during the theft at the time of robbery or fraud.

Like motivation, goals can be different, such as desire:

• get rich illegally
• forcefully change the constitutional order
• hide a criminal act
• sell securities

The subjective structure represents motives and goals as optional features, which in a crime can take different directions - reducing or increasing punishment. The legislator can consider these elements in the form of mandatory signs, then their presence determines the composition of criminal actions and vice versa, if they are not there, there will be no composition. When determining qualifying parameters, the level of severity of guilt is indicated.

Motivation for the crime

The first link in the mechanism of criminal behavior covers the formation of motives for crime.

Motive is usually understood as an internal urge to do a particular action. It is often seen as the direct cause of crime. The study of motive answers the question of why a person acts in one way or another. No intentional crime can be committed without one motive or another.

The motives for crimes are varied. So, V.V. Luneev identified the following six groups of motives:

1. political;
2. selfish;
3. violently selfish;
4. anarchist-individualist;
5. frivolous and irresponsible;
6. cowardly and cowardly.

It should be noted that the motive itself, as an internal urge, is not something criminal; it becomes such only when it acts as an element of the subjective side of an act prohibited by criminal law. He is the first link in the entire causal chain that underlies the mechanism of criminal behavior.

The emergence of a motive is preceded by such mental elements of the human personality as needs, drives, emotions, interests, and value orientations.

The main role in the formation of motives for criminal behavior is played by the needs of the subject. A person’s needs reflect his dependence on the outside world, his need for something.

Classifying various needs, six main groups can be distinguished:

1. material needs;
2. need for security;
3. the need for social communication (respect, recognition, approval);
4. sexual needs;
5. need for knowledge;
6. ideological needs.

Alternative classification
However, the following classification (according to A. Maslow) seems more correct:

1. physiological (food, sleep, sex, etc.);
2. safety (this also includes the instinct of self-preservation);
3. social;
4. respect (recognition);
5. spiritual (self-expression).

• It is clear that not every need can be the source of criminal behavior. In most cases, the source of motivation for criminal behavior is material needs, needs for social communication (self-affirmation) and sexual needs. It should be noted that each type of need can have a different degree of intensity and a different focus.

  Material needs cause selfish motivation for actions. According to experts, need is now the cause of 20-30% of all mercenary crimes. However, selfish motives are generated by both hypertrophied (inflated) and perverted needs. The desire for “big money” and super-income leads to major thefts, financial fraud, violation of tax and customs legislation, as well as contract killings. Drunkenness and drug use give rise not only to aggressive, but also selfish motivation.

  Needs of a social nature (self-affirmation, maintaining or increasing the status of prestige, superiority over others) lead to the formation of motives of an aggressive nature (hatred, resentment, jealousy, revenge, etc.). According to a number of criminologists, among the behavioral motives generated by these needs, the desire for violence against people occurs in approximately 40% of cases. At the same time, it should be noted that in 15-17% of cases, aggressive behavior was caused by the fact that the legitimate interests of the subject were infringed by the victims.

  A deep and protracted crisis in all spheres of life leads to a deformation of the individual’s needs, and consequently to an increase in the number of conflicts and aggressive manifestations, and an increase in violent crime.

  Along with human needs, drives, emotions and feelings . By this we mean difficult-to-regulate personal manifestations (aspirations), mainly of an organic (biological) nature. It is known that many crimes are committed under the influence of acute emotional states (mental unrest, strong feelings). These are, for example, fear, malice, indignation, cowardice, anger, etc. They are also common in psychopathic individuals. Physiological or pathological affect can become an extreme degree of emotional stress.

  The initial links in the mechanism of criminal behavior, committed under the influence of drives and emotions, collapse, disappear, and the transition to action sometimes follows immediately after the appearance of the image of the desired object. When, instead of calmly and rationally solving a problem that has arisen, a person becomes irritated, indignant, or angry, this negatively affects both him and those around him. This is one step away from insulting a person, hooliganism or another crime. It is no coincidence that drives and emotions give rise to aggressive behavior in everyday quarrels and conflicts in more than half of all cases. The combination of an antisocial personality, poor intellectual development and emotional arousal leads in such situations to the fact that internal control mechanisms are ineffective.

  In order for certain needs, interests, feelings, emotions, and drives to develop into a motive for a crime, the subject must psychologically overcome another internal “barrier” - a system of so-called value orientations, which includes the legal consciousness of the individual.

  In sociology, values ​​are understood as objects, phenomena and their properties that are needed (necessary, useful) for people as a means of satisfying their needs and interests, as well as ideas and motivations as a norm, goal or ideal. When determining the line of his behavior, a person relies on a system of his own value ideas (orientation), in which some values ​​are located above others, they are given preference over others, and this in turn affects the motivation of the action, the choice of goals and means of achieving them.

  Read also:  Article 13 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Extradition of persons who have committed a crime

  Needs, interests, feelings, emotions, drives, value orientations are internal components of personality, under the influence of which the motive for a crime is formed. But there is also an external factor - a specific life situation in which a crime is being prepared and committed.

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Disclosure of the definition of the subjective side

In legal terminology there is no subjective side as a concept. Although lawyers often use the definition:

• to characterize the internal part of the offense
• reflect the human psyche at the time of criminal acts
• determine how he relates to the fact committed

The signs of this element, which form the corpus delicti, consist of the following components:

• motive, provocateur of determination
• guilt, in the form of a mental attitude towards an action committed that is dangerous to the environment
• a goal consisting of ideas about the result

An important legal problem includes the debatable subjective side. It is of interest to scientists to determine the meaning of motivation as a behavioral basis for the maximum in-depth study of the psychology of citizens who violate the law. There is a varied assessment of the reasons for committing a crime. For example, proven wine is a mandatory component. Optional elements are translated into mandatory elements at the request of the legislator.

Banditry

According to Article 209 of the Criminal Code, which provides for punishment for banditry, an integral feature is the designation for what purpose the attack was committed.

The emotional state of human nature is difficult to accept by law; it is not customary to include it as part of a criminal act.

As an exception, Articles 106 and 107 of the Criminal Code were approved. They deal with such cruelties as the killing of newborn babies when the mother is in an affective state. Mitigating circumstances are caused by mental trauma that caused inappropriate behavior, subject to medical evidence provided.

Emotions also divide signs into 4 categories; they are used by philosophers and psychologists, rewarding

• duration and strength:
• according to my mood
• level of passion
• affect
• feelings

Feelings can reflect actual facts, express how an individual relates to his needs, and perceives what happened. Affects include short-term manifestations; a person may fall into stupor or, on the contrary, begin to actively act in rage.

Passion is governed by strong emotions, which become the cause of many criminal atrocities. Much also depends on the mood; gloomy or cheerful things can last for a long time and serve as the background for mental processes. Of course, there is no special purpose to assign criminal legal significance to all human emotions.

Causes and criminal behavior as assessed by jurisprudence

Political crime
In various literary publications from prominent figures in jurisprudence, the importance of the subjective side and its constant companions of motives and goals is more accurately expressed.

Where motive is the source in every action, the internal driving force that denotes a person’s interest, his need for motivation, they ensure the violation of the law.

At the same time, needs are necessary items to exist normally, but a citizen does not have them. The essence of the motives of criminal intentions indicates the authenticity of the characteristics and their origin. An illegal violation results in the objectification of all motives.

Lawyers categorize crimes based on motivation and severity:

• Antisocial, if there are violent, aggressive, political reasons.
• Asocial as less dangerous, they contain individualistic, selfish characteristics.
• Pseudo-social, reflecting group interests, contrary to the law, destroying individual freedom. Formation occurs on a false partnership, from which violent aggressive clashes are formed. Groups may be organized to commit economic atrocities.
• Protosocial with a smooth transition from good motivation to negative, such crimes are created in fleeting conflicts, they have increased affectivity.

The typical motives are intentional crimes or cases involving the commission of unpremeditated crimes, as well as the presence of both characteristics. For example, hooliganism, as a deliberate violation of the law, can cause careless harm to health. The criminal went to steal with confidence:

• there is no owner in the apartment
• when the owner of the property caught him on the spot, he got scared
• ran
• pushed the man away
• he fell and the impact on a piece of furniture caused harm to his health

The classification of actions combines several signs, including an intentional crime, careless actions that were provoked by fear as a strong feeling.

Criminal legal significance of the motive for the crime

There is currently no unambiguous approach to its definition in the legal literature. The concept of motive for crime is considered to be derived from a term used in psychology. The latter is associated with ordinary lawful behavior. In this regard, there was a discussion in legal publications about using the term “motive of crime” as an independent category. For example, Kharazishvili (hereinafter the names of famous lawyers, authors of many textbooks and monographs are given) believed that within the framework of science a psychological definition should be used. The introduction of an independent term would be unscientific.

Volkov and Sakharov had the opposite opinion. They noted that the transfer of a psychological term to legal science may contribute to the formation of the erroneous opinion that in society violators have positive normal needs that society does not want or cannot satisfy. At the same time, there was no consensus on the essence of the definition in legal publications. Thus, according to Volkov, the motive of a crime is something that, reflected in the consciousness of an individual, provokes him to break the law. Naumov had a slightly different opinion. He believed that the motive for a crime is a conscious impulse (feeling, need, etc.) to achieve a specific result through breaking the law.