The concept and meaning of the object of the crime
1. In the most general form, the object of a crime is what the criminal encroachment is aimed at, these are the rights or interests to which significant harm is caused or may be caused as a result of the crime. In the theory of Russian criminal law, the object
are called
social relations protected by criminal law.
For this purpose, the Criminal Code includes a norm containing a list of objects of crime: human and civil rights and freedoms, property, public order and public safety, the environment, the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, peace and security of mankind (Part 1 of Article 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). From the content of the norm it is clear that the law protects the most important interests for the life of society, putting the individual first. Naturally, the above list is variable and depends on the real living conditions of society. We find confirmation of this thesis by conducting a comparative analysis of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1960 and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of 1996. The new Criminal Code contains a wider list of social relations and defines the degree of their importance for society and the state differently.
2. Content
(structure)
of a social relationship
as an object of a crime includes subjects, subject and content (or the connection between participants in the relationship regarding a specific subject of social relationship).
Subjects of public relations
- these are individuals and legal entities, groups and the state itself, between which relations are formed regarding, for example, the protection of the individual (Articles 105-157 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, 1996).
Subject of public relations
- this is everything about which or in connection with which a given relationship develops and exists. This can be property (in crimes against property), normal physical and moral development of minors (when they are involved in a crime or in committing antisocial acts), etc.
Content of public relations
constitute a social connection, socially significant activity, a certain interaction of subjects of the relationship. All three elements of social relations are not united mechanically, they are organically interconnected and form an integral structure.
3. An object
as an element of the crime, it occupies an important place in the system of concepts of criminal law and is of great importance. First of all, it is the basis of criminal liability, since it is always necessary to establish to what object the harm was caused or the threat of causing such harm was created.
The significance of the object of the crime also lies in the fact that it is one of the criteria for distinguishing crimes from other offenses. The object of the crime plays an important role in the process of qualifying crimes and in distinguishing similar offenses.
The concept and characteristics of the subject of a crime. Special crime subject
The subject of a crime in the general sense of the word is the person who committed the crime. In a narrower, special sense of the word, the subject of a crime is a person capable of bearing criminal liability if he intentionally or recklessly commits a socially dangerous act provided for by criminal law. Of all the numerous personality traits of a criminal, the law singles out those that indicate his ability to bear criminal responsibility. It is these signs that characterize the subject of the crime.
Criminal liability is related to a person’s ability to understand and control his actions. In some cases, criminal liability is established by the norm of the Special Part of the Criminal Code only for persons with additional characteristics. For example, only an official can be held responsible for receiving a bribe, and only a military man can be held accountable for desertion. These special features are also included in the number of mandatory features that characterize the subject of a specific crime.
Age and sanity are the most common criteria necessary to recognize an individual as a subject of any crime. Therefore, a person who meets these requirements is sometimes called a “general subject.” A person who meets the special characteristics of a subject provided for by the relevant criminal law norm is usually called a “special subject.”
Classification of crime objects
1. In the theory of criminal law, for a more correct and effective application of criminal law norms by law enforcement agencies, two types of classification of crime objects are proposed and justified. This allows us to more fully identify the qualitative properties, role and significance of specific objects of crime.
Classification
- this is the division of objects into types depending on the importance and content of social relations.
Classification is carried out vertically
and
horizontally.
Vertically, general, generic, specific and immediate objects are distinguished. Horizontally, there are three types of direct objects: main, additional, optional.
2. General object
crimes - this is provided for in Part 1 of Art. 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is the totality of all social relations protected by criminal law from criminal attacks. A more detailed description and list of objects can be obtained by analyzing all articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Legislation. The identification of a common object is of great theoretical and practical importance for determining the nature and socio-political essence of the crime.
Generic object
covers a certain qualitatively homogeneous group of social relations, for example, relations in the economic sphere. The generic object plays an important official role - in accordance with it, the legislator divided all criminal legal norms of the Special Part into sections: seventh - crimes against the person, eighth - in the economic sphere, ninth - against public safety and public order, tenth - crimes against state power , the eleventh - crimes against military service, the twelfth - against the peace and security of mankind.
256 articles are combined in these six sections. The sections are not the same in volume, for example, the seventh section contains 53 articles, the eleventh - 22 articles, and the twelfth - 8 articles. Analysis of the crimes grouped in large sections shows that their objects are somewhat different from each other. For example, crimes against life and health, against sexual freedom and sexual integrity, etc. Taking this difference into account, the legislator divided the crimes within the section into chapters. The main criterion for this division is the species object,
which stands out within the generic and represents a narrower group of homogeneous social relations. For example, property relations.
Thus, generic and specific objects form the basis for the construction of the Special Part, a clear systematization of criminal law norms. In addition, they are important for determining the legal nature of the crime and ensuring the correct classification.
Direct object
- this is the specific social relationship that the perpetrator directly encroaches on (murder - life, theft - property, drug trafficking - public health). It is of utmost importance for the qualification of crimes and the differentiation of similar elements, determining the nature and degree of social danger of the committed act and imposing punishment.
3. Often a crime encroaches on several
direct objects, and the legislator is forced to take this into account when constructing the elements of such crimes. This is how multi-objective elements of crimes appeared in the criminal law. But in order to correctly determine the place of these compounds in the system of the Special Part, it became necessary to classify direct objects (horizontally), to determine the social relationship that is fundamental. Therefore, the following types of direct objects were identified: main, additional, optional.
Main object
- this is the relationship for the protection of which the criminal law norm arose. For example, a robbery, as a result of which property was stolen and serious harm was caused to the health of the owner. Property and health are two immediate objects, but the legislator recognized property as the main one and included Art. 162 in the chapter “Crime against property”. But in case of murder for selfish motives, the main immediate object is life, and property relations are an additional one.
Consequently, the additional direct object is those social relations that inevitably suffer damage when the main object is attacked. For example, an attack on the life of a law enforcement officer (Article 317 of the Criminal Code): the main object is the order of management, and life is an additional object.
An additional direct object, along with the main one, in all cases is a mandatory element of the crime.
Optional object
- this is the social relationship to which damage may be caused by a given crime in some cases, but not in others. But there is a corpus delicti. For example, in Art. 213 of the Criminal Code - hooliganism - names public order as the main object, and the optional objects are the health of citizens and property. Therefore, the following situations are subject to the same classification: a) gross violation of public order, expressing clear disrespect for society and involving violence; b) a gross violation of public order, expressing clear disrespect for society, associated with the destruction of other people's property.
Lawyers were told how the crime is determined
According to the press service of the FPA, on March 19, during the next webinar of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers, Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Law of the Moscow State Law University named after O.E. Kutafina, Ph.D. Anastasia Ragulina gave a lecture on the topic “Current issues of corpus delicti.”
At the beginning of her speech, Anastasia Ragulina recalled the definition of corpus delicti - this is a set of objective and subjective characteristics provided for by the criminal law that characterize a socially dangerous act as a crime. She also explained what general and specific elements of a crime are.
An element of a crime is its component part, which includes mandatory and optional features. Mandatory elements of a crime are the elements included by the legislator in each specific element of the crime provided for by the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Optional elements of a crime are elements that are included by the legislator only in some specific elements of a crime.
The lecturer noted that according to the degree of expression in the law, the signs of a crime are divided into positive and negative. Positive signs of a crime are expressed in positive concepts, i.e. in concepts that reflect the characteristics inherent in the subject. The lecturer explained all these theoretical points with specific examples.
According to the degree of immutability and stability, the signs of a crime are divided into constant and variable. At the same time, the content of permanent signs remains unchanged throughout the entire period of validity of this criminal law and does not depend on the specific circumstances of the crime committed. The characteristics specified in the disposition of articles of the General and Special Parts of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are constant. A change in the law may lead to the replacement of one characteristic with another or to the fact that the characteristic acquires a different content.
Anastasia Ragulina noted that variables are signs whose content can change without changing the text of the disposition of the article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code during the validity of one criminal law. The content of these features is determined not only by the text of the article, but also by other factors. The variable characteristics themselves are evaluative and blanket.
Next, the lecturer described in detail the assessment signs. According to her, their legislative description is general. They are specified officially by law enforcement or informally by doctrinal interpretation. The content of evaluation criteria is explained in the decisions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court for certain categories of cases. Clarification of the understanding of evaluative characteristics is also possible in decisions on specific cases.
Blanket signs are those whose specific content is disclosed in a normative legal act related to another branch of law. The blanket element of a crime is externally stable, but its content can change significantly due to changes in the normative legal act referred to in the criminal law.
Next, Anastasia Ragulina spoke about the meaning of the crime. She noted that the presence of all the elements of a crime in a person’s act is the basis for criminal liability, and the corpus delicti is a tool for qualifying crimes. There is also the concept of “alternative composition” - this is a composition that includes two or more characteristics, any of which is sufficient to justify responsibility (qualification) for this composition.
Citing a number of specific compositions, the expert recalled, in particular, Art. 315 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which establishes liability for malicious failure by a government official, civil servant, municipal employee, as well as an employee of a state or municipal institution, commercial or other organization of a court verdict, court decision or other judicial act that has entered into legal force, as well as obstruction of their execution . The subject of obstruction in this case is general. This is evidenced by the Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated February 17, 2015 No. 395-O on a complaint against Art. 315 CC.
Talking about the shortcomings of the current criminal law, Anastasia Ragulina suggested paying attention to one “imperfection” of Art. 177 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This article establishes liability for evasion of repayment of accounts payable and evasion of payment for securities. Moreover, the large size refers only to debt, but not to securities, as evidenced by the conjunction “or”. Nevertheless, the Methodological Recommendations say: “Criminal actions to evade repayment of accounts payable or payment for securities must be committed exclusively on a large scale.”
Next we talked about qualification errors, that is, about incorrectly establishing the presence or absence of a crime, as well as its compliance with the description in the norms of the Criminal Code. The main causes of qualification errors are shortcomings in legislation and shortcomings in law enforcement. The lecturer outlined the types of qualification errors. First of all, this is an incorrect legal assessment of what was done: excessive qualifications or qualifications with a reserve; qualification of evaluative signs of a crime; qualification of single complex and cumulative crimes; qualification of socially dangerous consequences; qualification of minor acts and crimes bordering on misdemeanors.
Further, the speaker in her speech explained what continuing crimes are. The concept of a continuing crime is given in the Resolution of the 23rd Plenum of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated March 4, 1929 “On the conditions for applying statute of limitations and amnesty to continuing and continuing crimes.” The Supreme Court considers a continuing crime as an act consisting of a number of identical criminal actions aimed at a common goal and collectively constituting a single crime.
The speaker's presentation can be found here.
Subject of the crime
1. The subject of the crime
are material things of the objective world or intellectual values in connection with or regarding which crimes are committed. The subject of the crime is an optional element of the crime. It must have the appropriate properties. Thus, when committing theft (Article 158 of the Criminal Code), the perpetrator confiscates various other people’s property (money, valuables, clothing, etc.) of a certain value. Sometimes the legislator associates specific qualifications with the properties of the subject of the crime (thing) (smuggling of drugs and weapons requires qualification under Part 2 of Article 188, while other property - under Part 1 of Article 188 of the Criminal Code).
2. In crimes against a person, the perpetrator causes moral, physical or other harm to a specific person, who is called the victim (it is incorrect to call a person the subject of a crime). In some cases, the properties of the victim affect qualifications (for example, age at rape, etc.).
The subject of the crime, if it is provided for by a specific norm, is a mandatory element of the crime; its absence indicates the absence of the crime. For example, liability under Art. 325 occurs only if the stolen document is classified as official; liability for counterfeiting (Article 186 of the Criminal Code) - if the manufactured banknote is difficult to distinguish from the real one, i.e. is not a crude fake.
3. The subject of the crime should be distinguished from the means of committing the crime, i.e. things, objects, etc. that are used by the offender to achieve a criminal result. For example, burglary tools when committing a theft, a pistol used in a robbery, are means of committing a crime. It must be taken into account that the same things can be in one case the subject of a crime, and in another - a means or weapon of committing a crime (poison is the subject of a crime under Article 234 of the Criminal Code - illegal trafficking of potent or toxic substances; poison is a means used during murder).
