Cheat sheet on criminal law. General part (7 pages)

– is important for the codification of criminal legislation. Based on the generic and specific object of the crime, the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is built;

– correct identification of the object of the crime makes it possible to distinguish the crime from other offenses and immoral offenses;

– allows you to determine the nature and degree of social danger of a criminal act, i.e. what socially significant benefit is protected by criminal law, and to what extent (how seriously) the harm was caused or could be caused;

– is important for the correct qualification of the act and the delimitation of one crime from another.

CONCEPT, CONTENT, MEANING AND SIGNS OF THE OBJECTIVE SIDE OF A CRIME

The objective side of a crime is one of the four elements of a crime, which consists of the perpetrator committing a specific act that poses a public danger and is prohibited by criminal law under threat of punishment.

The objective side as an element of a crime is a set of legally significant signs provided for by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, characterizing an external act of socially dangerous encroachment.

Signs of the objective side include:

1)required:

a) an act that encroaches on a particular object, which can be expressed in two forms: in action - it represents an act of active socially dangerous and illegal behavior; inaction is a socially dangerous act of behavior, consisting in a person’s failure to perform an action that he should and could have performed. Criminal inaction is characterized by two elements: objective – the obligation to act and subjective – the opportunity to commit a behavioral act. The action must be limited by a certain volitional impulse and conscious;

b) socially dangerous consequences - the result of a criminal act;

c) a causal relationship between action (inaction) and consequences - an objective connection between phenomena, one of which (cause), in the presence of certain conditions, gives rise to another phenomenon (effect). Features of causal relationships: cause gives rise to effect. The scope of the causes, primarily the stage of motivation and decision-making, when it comes to the formation of a motive, a goal, and the determination of the means of achieving it as criminal; the cause always precedes the effect in time; the action of the same cause under the same conditions always gives rise to the same effect; the effect does not repeat the cause;

2) optional:

– situation – a set of circumstances affecting the nature and degree of public danger of the act (combat situation, zone of environmental disaster or zone of environmental emergency);

– the place where the crime was committed is the territory in which the criminal act is committed (home, burial places);

– time of commission of the crime – the period during which the crime was committed (wartime, during or immediately after childbirth);

– the method of committing a crime is a set of techniques and methods used to commit a criminal act.

The meaning of the objective side of the crime:

– affects the correct classification of a socially dangerous act;

– plays a role in distinguishing crimes that are similar in other respects;

– analysis of the objective side allows in some cases to establish the presence of a second, additional object;

– individual elements of the objective side are used by the legislator as qualifying features;

– signs of an objective party can be considered by the court as mitigating or aggravating circumstances that do not affect qualifications, but are taken into account when determining the type and amount of punishment.

Rights of the guilty person

The offender has the right:

• to tell the truth;
• appear in court after being subpoenaed;
• have a lawyer or receive one in court;
• do not oppose yourself;
• not to give any evidence;
• apply for a review of the case;
• be in hospital for health reasons at the time of the trial;
• actively contribute to the cause;
• provide assistance to the victim;
• voluntarily compensate for material and moral damage;
• allege aggravating circumstances;
• expose other criminals acting with him at the time of the crime, declare the work of other groups and other actions.

However, the guilty person is prohibited from appearing at the courthouse without a good reason, resisting all work of the investigative team, giving false testimony, and interfering with the trial.

Is the subject of a crime in criminal law different from the object

The object is considered to be the one at which the action is aimed, which could be harmed as a result of the offense. Usually the object is the most important social values, interests, and benefits. They are listed together in Art. 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It includes inalienable privileges along with freedoms, property, and social order.

Other differences:

1. The first rarely appears as part of an offense. Of course, in theft, bribery, counterfeiting, there cannot be a crime without it. However, certain actions may not have it at all. For example, insulting a person or slander.
2. The object is different from the weapon and the object with which the crime was committed. But many things can be of the same kind.
3. The subject, if we are talking about an attempt on a specific person, is replaced by the concept of “victim”. The full definition can be found in the Code. This concept, in addition to law, is also used in any other criminal law matter and criminology.

An object is classified as a certain thing, thanks to which the guilty person unlawfully acts on a person. An object always acts as a value, and at the same time, an object is a material substance: for example, when a car is stolen, it is an object; the relationships that arise about this are an object.

Notes

1. ↑ Course of criminal law. A common part. Volume 1: The doctrine of crime / Ed. N. F. Kuznetsova and I. M. Tyazhkova. M., 2002. P. 216.
2. ↑ Nazarenko G.V. Criminal law. General part: Course of lectures. M., 2005. P. 66.
3. ↑ It should be noted that some scientists (for example, A. A. Piontkovsky) declare the identity of the subject and object of the crime; this opinion is not generally accepted. See: Nazarenko G.V. Criminal law. General part: Course of lectures. M., 2005. P. 65.
4. ↑ Course of criminal law. A common part. Volume 1: The doctrine of crime / Ed. N. F. Kuznetsova and I. M. Tyazhkova. M., 2002. S. 216-217.
5. ↑ 123
   Criminal law course. A common part. Volume 1: The doctrine of crime / Ed. N. F. Kuznetsova and I. M. Tyazhkova. M., 2002. P. 217.
6. ↑ Criminal law of the Russian Federation. General part: Textbook. Workshop / Ed. A.S. Mikhlina. M., 2004. S. 108-109.
7. ↑ Ivanov N. G. Criminal law of the Russian Federation. General and Special parts. M., 2000. P. 100.
8. ↑ Criminal law of Russia / Ed. V. N. Kudryavtseva, V. V. Luneeva, A. V. Naumova. M., 2006. P. 120.

This page was last edited on June 10, 2022 at 2:21 pm.

Victim

Main article: Victim

A person can also be considered as the subject of attacks on the person, by influencing whose body a criminal attack is committed. The characteristics of such a person may have a criminal legal meaning similar to the meaning of the characteristics of the subject (for example, when classifying sexual crimes, crimes against life and health, as well as when assigning punishment for a crime committed). However, in this case the concept of “victim”

, and not “the subject of a crime”[5]. N. G. Ivanov proposes to consider a person as an object if the influence is carried out on his physical body[7], however, this point of view has not received general recognition[8].

The concept of “victim”, in addition to criminal law, is also used in criminal proceedings and criminology.

Differences between an object and other signs of an offense

Very often people legally confuse the terms “object” and “subject”, although there are significant differences between them. The subject acts as an additional feature, and not the main one, as an object; accordingly, it may or may not be included in the crime

In addition, it is important to note that it may not be subject to damage, unlike the object. Any criminal act causes damage to the object, since it represents social relations

The criminal is more interested in ensuring that the material element remains intact, since it is the main goal of illegal behavior. For example, when stealing a TV, it is important for the thief that it remains intact and is not damaged in the process of removing it from the house. Moreover, the subject of a crime may even improve its qualities during the course of the offense; this happens, for example, when processing drugs in special laboratories.

According to the criminal legal assessment, the subject of the offense is classified as a certain thing, thanks to which the subject unlawfully acts on the victim. The object of an illegal act is a value, while at the same time the object is a material substance.

Problems in qualification often arise, since the object still resembles a weapon of a criminal act. The weapon of the crime is in no way connected with the object of the offense, while the subject and the object are interrelated elements. To explain with a clear example, the object of the crime of theft will be an encroachment on a person’s property, the object of the crime is what the subject of the violation has appropriated - gold, money, a car. The weapon of crime, in this situation, is a master key, fake documentation or a crowbar, that is, the means by which the criminal brought his illegal intentions to life.

By correctly identifying the optional sign of a criminal act, you can obtain important and additional information regarding the intent of the offender and his identity. By differentiating the subject of illegal behavior and the instrument, it is possible to put together all the signs of a crime. If at least one of the signs is absent, there is no basis for criminal liability. In other words, if the object of the crime and its components are not established in the actions (inaction) of the subject, then the potential criminal is not subject to criminal liability.

The criminality of an act very often depends on the value or monetary equivalent of the subject of the offense. Thus, the actions of the criminal will be equal to the value of the optional element of the object of legal relations.

If, for example, it is planned to steal a gold bar from a safe deposit box, then the thieves come up with a whole plan, a strategy for breaking into the bank, use different master keys and put the guards to sleep

While stealing a wallet from a passerby's jacket does not require preparation or special effort on the part of the thief, he simply needs to distract the attention of the potential victim.

The subject of the crime in criminal law is of great importance for qualifying the offense and determining the proper punishment. The qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the optional sign of an offense also influence how the judge or prosecutor will classify the crime. For example, the theft of 3 thousand rubles and 30 million are completely different types of responsibility and, of course, punishment. The same applies to cases of transportation across the border of items withdrawn from civil circulation - this is one type of violation of the law, and exceeding the permissible number of items allowed for transportation is completely different.

To summarize, I would like to say that only after a detailed study of the subject of the offense and other signs of the crime can concrete conclusions be drawn about punishment. Of course, the qualification of crimes is a matter for the investigators and Themis, but every conscientious citizen is obliged to have basic concepts in jurisprudence in order to, if necessary, be able to defend their legal rights and interests.

Types of illegal acts

Depending on the level of danger for other citizens of society, offenses committed are divided into two types:

1. A misdemeanor is an act that causes minimal harm to society. They can be disciplinary (as a rule, associated with the hierarchy of relations in the work collective or poor performance of one’s work duties), administrative (hooliganism, vandalism, etc.) and civil law (these include violation of the order of property and non-property relations).
2. Crime is the most dangerous type of offense. It entails not only a violation of social norms and laws, but also causes significant harm (sometimes irreparable) to property or health, and sometimes to the life of one citizen or an entire group of people. This type of offense is more often referred to as a criminal offense.