Single complex crime: concept, composition and qualifications

The concept of crime in criminal law

Crime in science is understood as negative active or passive activity of people, which is the most dangerous for society of all existing forms. It can be directed by a person to another person, to the state, to nature, to the normal development of a child, and much more.

What the crime is aimed at is called the object. In the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), all acts of criminal persons are listed depending on the object. The crime disrupts the normal existence and development of the entire society and state, which is why the authorities punish the person who commits it. In criminal law there are many different classifications of crimes based on various grounds and criteria.

The importance of the institute

We examined the concept of a single crime and the types of single crimes, which are of great importance in the theory of criminal law. If the law enforcement officer understands these provisions, then in practice fewer errors will be made in assessing the act. The concept of a single crime, one way or another, affects every crime that is in the Criminal Code. That is why, in theory, this issue is constantly studied and analyzed, as a result of which errors are corrected and the norms of the law are supplemented.

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What is a single crime?

Scientists and practitioners under a single crime mean a criminal act or inaction of a person who represents the elements of one crime, and its qualification is carried out according to one part and article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. A person commits a crime by one or more acts that can lead to one or more consequences, the main thing is that when qualifying, the court indicates one part of the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In this case, we will talk about the concept of a single crime, and we will learn about complex single crimes further. In practice, the latter is often confused with multiplicity of crimes. This refers to cases where a person commits two or more crimes one after another, each of which entails criminal liability and punishment.

Continuing act

They represent the commission of a series (two or more) of identical actions or inactions that are performed for the same purpose. The difference from the previous type of crime is that the same actions are committed more than once, but several acts occur sequentially. The moment of the end of the crime is the moment of confirmation of the last action or inaction. A striking example is torture, in which physical or mental suffering is inflicted on the victim several times. This also includes ongoing thefts, when money or things are stolen piecemeal. The peculiarity of the crime is that the time interval between the acts is small.

Single crime classification

According to their composition and structure, such crimes are divided into two groups - simple and complex. Simple ones include those that are aimed at one object, are characterized by one action or inaction, entail one consequence, and the criminal has one intent and one form of guilt.

For example, theft, which in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is disclosed as the theft of someone else's property, which is carried out secretly so that neither the owner nor other witnesses see it. Theft disrupts the relationships that develop regarding material things and property. In such a crime, one action is performed - someone else's property is confiscated secretly from the owner. The criminal’s intention is to get rich; it has a direct form. This means that the person was aware of the danger of his actions and desired the consequences. In contrast to a simple crime, there is a single complex crime, which in practice occurs much more often than the first.

Brief description of a complex crime

Complex single crimes are those acts of a person that encroach on two or more objects, and the actions or inactions are complex and sequential, consisting of several stages. At the same time, the criminal’s two forms of guilt or his actions entail several consequences: basic and additional. In turn, this group of criminal acts has several forms, which will be discussed below. The main feature of this type is multidimensionality, versatility. It is much more difficult to investigate and prove such a composition than the first group.

Compound crimes

Let us consider the concept of a single complex crime as a composite one. It consists of two actions, or maybe more, and the obligatory feature is the independence of each action, that is, it can be considered as a separate crime. A striking example is such a category as robbery, it is provided for in Article 162. The individual actions of the criminal together form a single crime. In this case, this is causing suffering to a person and stealing other people's things, or an attempt. One of these actions is the main one in the crime, and the second already complements it. For example, the main action is stealing other people's things, and the additional action is causing harm. An example of this type is hooliganism, which affects public order and also encroaches on the individual. These crimes are always multi-objective.

Double form of guilt: what is it and how to define it?

It is clear that a complex crime is characterized by two or more objects, sequential actions, consequences and forms of guilt. If the first components are clear, then the forms of guilt are a complex concept.

It must be understood clearly. In general, guilt is a person’s attitude towards what he has done. There is guilt in the form of intent, and there is in the form of negligence. In the first case, the person wanted and understood the essence of what was happening; in the second, he did not mean that it could cause harm, but with due care he should have understood this. Double guilt forms complex forms of a single crime, in which the person had intent in relation to the main crime, and negligence in relation to the consequences that occurred. Both the first and second forms of guilt are divided into several types, so the milking form of guilt may also imply a combination of them.

Guilt can be determined by the degree of preparedness for the crime, the actions preceding the commission of the act, whether the person repents or not, and whether he helps the investigation. All these are assessment categories, so you need to rely on the literacy of police officers.

Additional grave consequences and two forms of guilt

This is another type of complex crime. The crime provides for additional consequences that are more serious than the main ones. For example, causing grievous harm to a person, as a result of which the victim died. An additional serious consequence is the death of a person.

This also includes crimes with two forms of guilt. This is a violation of traffic rules on the road, which resulted in the death of a person. In relation to violation of the rules, the form of guilt is intentional, in relation to the death of a person - careless. There are two forms of guilt on the face.

Classification

For convenience, all single complex crimes are divided into several types:

1. Lasting. These are cases where the crime begins when the offender commits the act and continues until the police or someone else stops it. That is, a person creates a criminal state that can last an indefinite amount of time. For example, possession of a firearm that a person purchased illegally without obtaining a license. Evasion of child support is also a continuing crime, but it illustrates criminal omission.
2. Continuing crime. Based on the name, you might think that it is similar to the first type, but this is actually not the case. In this case, we are talking about the commission of a number of identical actions by a person, each of which constitutes a crime. At the same time, they are covered by a single goal. The beginning is the commission of the first action, and the end is the end of the last action or the cessation of their execution by police officers. For example, the theft of food products by the manager of a warehouse, in parts over two years. In this case, things were stolen in small parts every week, resulting in one crime.
3. Composite. As in the previous form, it consists of two or more independent crimes that can be considered separately. They are a single crime only because they are covered by a specific part of the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. For example, escaping with violence. There are two separate crimes here, but there is a specific part of the article that combines them and turns them into a single complex crime. As a rule, it is provided for by a specific part of a certain article, this is called a qualified crime.

You should be careful with the above types of single complex crimes; they have much in common with multiplicity, as discussed earlier. These are two different phenomena in criminal law; in no case can they be identified.

Single crime and its types. The concept and types of multiplicity of crimes.

A single crime is a crime provided for by criminal law as a single, single, independent crime. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the dispositions of the articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code formulate single crimes. When constructing this concept, the legislator proceeds from the typicality of a given criminal act, its characteristic features, prevalence, and degree of public danger.

The main feature of a single crime is that it is covered by the same article of the Criminal Code.

Types of single crimes are:

1) a simple single crime; 2) complicated single crime.

In turn, complicated single crimes include:

1) crimes that are ongoing; 2) crimes are ongoing; 3) complex or compound crimes.

If we keep in mind that a plurality of crimes can be a combination of simple and complicated single crimes, then it is very important to find out the legal nature of these single crimes.

2. A simple single crime should be considered such a crime (falling under the characteristics of one article of the Criminal Code), which is characterized by the presence of one action and one consequence (for example, theft, murder), or a crime that has two actions (for example, speculation), or a crime consisting from one action and entailing two or more consequences (for example, violation of mining rules, resulting in accidents with people or other serious consequences).

All these individual simple crimes are covered by one article of the Criminal Code and have a certain structural unity.

3. Complicated single crimes.

A continuing crime. The concept of a continuing crime is used not only in the theory of criminal law, but also in practice. Such crimes are: illegal possession of weapons, illegal imprisonment, participation in a gang, failure to report a crime, evasion of taxes, as well as alimony, etc. In all of the above cases, some action or inaction of a person begins the commission of a certain crime (having bought a gun, the person began to illegally store it; having failed to comply with the court decision, the person began to evade paying alimony). In all these cases, the action or inaction of a person creates a certain criminal state that lasts for a certain period of time. Thus, in a continuing crime, a person commits an action, commits inaction, which begins the crime, and then the crime itself is committed, carried out continuously.

A continuing crime can be defined as a single crime, which, having begun by the action or inaction of a person, is committed continuously for a more or less long time. Or, in other words, a continuing crime is characterized by the continuous implementation of a specific crime. When a crime continues for a certain time, the person remains in a criminal state.

The beginning of a continuing crime is the action or inaction that creates this criminal state (unlawful deprivation of liberty begins with an action, failure to report - with inaction).

A continuing crime ends with the cessation of the criminal state, the cessation of the implementation of the crime. The end of an ongoing crime can occur as a result of the actions of the criminal himself (for example, a person sells a pistol that was illegally kept in his possession) or as a result of other reasons, say, as a result of the intervention of authorities (the Ministry of Internal Affairs seized a pistol that was illegally stored in a person’s possession). When, for some reason, the criminal state of a person ceases, the ongoing crime also ends.

The duration of this crime does not affect the qualification of the actions of the perpetrator, but can be taken into account when assigning punishment. A continuing crime, as one of the types of a single crime, is covered by one article of the Criminal Code.

Continuing crime. It recognizes a crime consisting of a number of identical criminal actions aimed at a common goal and constituting a single crime as a whole.

Multiplicity of crimes

Thus, a continuing crime is also a single crime. It is characterized by the following symptoms:

a) a continuing crime consists of two or more independent ones, i.e. separated from each other in time, identical criminal acts;

b) all these individual independent criminal acts are united by a unity of purpose and have a common goal;

c) because of this, they (these acts) are considered not as a plurality of crimes, but as one, single, single crime, falling under the characteristics of one article of the Criminal Code. The concept of a continuing crime is widely used in judicial practice in cases of theft of property (for example, theft of a whole in parts, i.e., carried out in several stages). This concept is also used in cases of defrauding customers (selling at increased prices an exact quantity of goods in parts) and in other cases.

The beginning of a continuing crime is the commission of the first act from among several identical criminal acts. The end of a continuing crime is considered to be the moment the last criminal act was committed. Therefore, a continuing crime is also a single crime that falls under one article of the Criminal Code.

It is necessary to distinguish ongoing crimes from continuing crimes. If a continuing crime is the continuous commission by a person of the corpus delicti, then a continuing crime presupposes the presence of separate criminal acts separated from each other by a period of time. It's like an "intermittent" crime.

Complex, or compound, crime. Let's look at some examples. In Part 2 of Art. 183 of the Criminal Code establishes liability for escape from a place of deprivation of liberty or from custody, combined with violence; in Part 2 of Art. 206 - for malicious hooliganism combined with resistance to a government official or a member of the public; in p.

"in" Art. 234 - for resistance to the boss, combined with his premeditated murder; in Part 2 of Art. 166 - for abuse of power combined with violence, etc. Many articles of the Criminal Code establish liability for such complicated single crimes.

These crimes are characterized by the combination in the disposition of the article of the Criminal Code into a single crime of two or more independent criminal acts that are in close unity, in a typical, so to speak, organic connection (escape is very often associated with violence, hooliganism with resistance to representatives of the authorities or the public, etc. .P.). Therefore, the legislator, based on the typical connection of these acts, their organic unity, combines them in the Criminal Code into one, single, complex, compound crime. A compound crime has the following characteristics:

a) it consists of two or more criminal acts (escape combined with violence; abuse of power combined with violence);

b) each of these criminal acts, if considered separately, independently, in isolation, forms a separate crime, contains signs of an independent crime (both escape and causing violence are independent crimes);

c) these individual crimes, due to their organic unity, typical connections, and prevalence, are considered by the legislator as one, single, single complex crime;

d) this single complex crime is covered by the features of one article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code, i.e. is provided for in the disposition of the corresponding article of the Criminal Code as a single complex (composite) crime.

Thus, a complex or compound crime is a crime consisting of two or more criminal acts, each of which, if considered separately (in isolation), constitutes an independent crime, but which, due to their organic unity, form one single crime , covered by the characteristics of one article of the Criminal Code. 4. The meaning of single crimes

The concept and types of individual crimes make it possible to understand what structural elements make up the multiplicity of crimes. This is important because multiple crimes can include different combinations of single crimes.

The concept of a single crime is necessary to distinguish from some similar types of multiplicity of crimes (continued crime - from repeated crime, a set of crimes - from complex (composite), etc.).

The concept of a single crime is of great importance for the correct qualification and when assigning punishment.

As already noted, multiplicity of crimes occurs when signs of several independent crimes coincide in the behavior of one person. multiplicity of crimes into three types: 1) aggregation of crimes; 2) repetition of crimes and 3) recidivism of crimes. Let us consider these types of multiplicity of crimes in this order.

4. Concept, structure and types of crimes.

Based on the most typical features of specific crimes in criminal law, the general concept of a crime was formulated. The signs of a crime include signs that characterize the object of the crime, its objective side, the subject of the crime and the subjective side. The object of a crime is a set of social relations protected by criminal law, which are targeted by a criminal attack that causes or creates a threat of causing harm to them. The objective side of a crime is a set of external signs of criminal behavior that constitute a socially dangerous, illegal act, which is committed at a certain time, in a specific place, in a certain way, with the help of specific tools or means and in a certain environment, and as a result of which socially dangerous consequences occur ( or there is a threat of such consequences). The subject of a crime is a sane individual who has reached the age established by criminal law at which criminal liability begins. The subjective side of a crime is a person’s internal attitude towards the crime, expressed in the understanding of their actions and their assessment.

These four groups of signs form the corpus delicti. Each group of signs in the theory of criminal law is called an element of the crime. Thus, the corpus delicti is the totality of all elements characterizing a specific act as a crime. The elements of the crime are interconnected and are in organic unity with each other. Only together can they form a legal basis for criminal liability. The significance of the corpus delicti lies: firstly, in the fact that only its presence in the act is the basis for criminal liability; secondly, according to the mandatory criteria contained in a specific crime contained in the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the process of qualifying the crime takes place; thirdly, the corpus delicti serves as a necessary criminal legal tool for distinguishing criminal acts from non-criminal ones; fourthly, with the help of the corpus delicti, the limits of the punishability of the crime are determined; fifthly, the corpus delicti characterizes the category of severity of the criminal act committed.

In criminal law, crimes are classified according to three bases:

according to the degree of public danger of the crime;

according to the structure of the crime;

according to the design of the objective side.

According to the degree of public danger, the following are distinguished:

main element of the crime;

composition with mitigating circumstances;

composition with aggravating circumstances.

The basic composition contains a typical description of a certain type of crime without indicating mitigating or aggravating circumstances. As a rule, it is described in part one of article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Compositions with mitigating circumstances include a circumstance that significantly reduces the danger of a crime, and with aggravating circumstances - a circumstance that significantly increases the danger of a crime. These compounds are also called qualified. They are, as a rule, indicated in the second and subsequent parts of the article or in a separate article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. For example, in Part 1 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation contains the basis for murder, in its part 2 - qualified types with aggravating circumstances, in Art. 106-108 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - qualified types with mitigating circumstances.

By structure, i.e. According to the method of description , the compositions are divided into:

simple;

complex.

In simple offenses, the legislator indicates all the signs of a crime one-dimensionally (for example, murder encroaches on one object, is committed by one act, entails one consequence, has one form of guilt - Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In complex compositions, at least one of its signs is indicated in a non-uniform manner (for example, robbery encroaches on two objects - Article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, resulting in the death of the victim through negligence, is characterized by a combination of two forms of guilt - Part 4 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code RF). A type of complex composition is a composition with alternatively specified characteristics. In them, some signs are described alternatively. Such compositions may contain several objects of a crime (nuclear materials or radioactive substances - Article 221 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), several actions (purchase, storage, transportation, production or processing - Article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), several consequences (serious harm to health or causing a large damage - Article 267 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), several ways of committing a crime (deception or abuse of trust - Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). To recognize an act as a crime, at least one of the alternatively specified signs is sufficient.

By design, i.e. According to the method of legislative description of the objective side of the crime , the offenses are divided into:

material;

formal;

specific danger.

Material crimes are recognized as elements of crimes, the description of the objective side of which, as a mandatory feature, contains an indication of criminal consequences. Consequently, the objective side of crimes with such composition is characterized by three mandatory features: the act, socially dangerous consequences and the causal relationship between them. These include murder, bodily harm, all forms (except robbery) and types of theft, many environmental, transport and other crimes.

Formal crimes are considered to be those whose objective side contains one mandatory feature - a socially dangerous act. Such crimes are rape, slander, insult, deliberately false reporting of an act of terrorism, receiving and giving bribes, falsification of evidence, etc. In the literature, a type of formal composition is identified - truncated, the distinctive feature of which is that the moment of the end of crimes with such composition is the legislator does not associate with the full implementation of a criminal act, but with the commission of only part of these actions. Outwardly, they look like an attempt or even preparation to commit a crime, but the legislator transfers the moment of completion of a crime with such elements to the stages characterizing preliminary criminal activity. For example, robbery in the law is described as an attack with the purpose of theft, i.e. as actions directly aimed at stealing someone else’s property - Art. 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (in this case, the moment of completion of the crime is transferred to the stage of attempted crime); banditry is characterized by the legislator as the creation of a stable armed group (in this case, the moment of the end of the crime is transferred to the stage of preparation for committing the crime).

The elements of real (specific) danger are characterized by an act that created the threat of the consequences specified in the law. Thus, they differ from material elements in that responsibility for such crimes is not associated with the actual infliction of consequences, and from formal ones in that the law specifically indicates possible consequences. For example, a terrorist act (Article 205) or violation of the rules for handling environmentally hazardous substances and waste is criminally punishable if it created a threat of causing significant harm to health or the environment (Article 247 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Dividing the compositions by design makes it possible to determine the moment when the crime ends . Crimes are considered completed:

with material composition - at the moment of the onset of consequences;

with a formal composition - at the moment of commission of the act described in the law;

with the composition of a real (specific) danger - at the moment of creating a real threat of the occurrence of the consequences specified in the law.

Crime with alternative actions

It is not included in the official classification of types of single complex crimes, but a crime with an alternative is no less important. Their peculiarity lies, first of all, in listing the types of actions or inactions in the article.

The presence of one of these actions in a person’s act is a full-fledged crime. A striking example of this type is Art. 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which describes the crime of illegal acquisition, manufacture, storage for the purpose of sale or transportation, processing of drugs and psychotropic substances. There are several different actions listed here, the presence of at least one of them is a crime. As you can see, complex individual crimes are very diverse, interesting, and cover a wide range of acts.

Continuing crime

It must be distinguished from the continued one, which will be discussed later; all these are types of a single crime, but they cannot be identified. A continuing act implies the commission of an objective party over a long period of time. For example, this is the illegal deprivation of a person’s freedom, evasion of alimony payments, leaving a place of service without permission. Such a crime ends at the moment the first action is committed, or from the moment the inaction begins. For example, the beginning is the moment of leaving the place of duty without permission, this is a criminal act. Failure to appear at the recruiting office when summoned is the beginning of criminal inaction. In this case, all actions of a criminal nature are combined and considered a complex single crime.

The concept of qualifications in criminal law

Qualification, first of all, refers to the complex activities of special persons, which consists in the correlation of the signs of a crime outlined in the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with the act actually committed. The result is a specific document that indicates the person suspected, accused or convicted of a crime, the specific part and article under which the act falls, as well as the responsibility, type and amount of punishment that will be assigned to the offender. Qualification can be carried out by investigators, interrogators, prosecutors, the court - these are all specially authorized police officers. Students, scientists, and teachers can also conduct it, in which case the qualification will not have any legal significance.

Distinction from plurality

Multiplicity refers to the presence of two elements of crime or even more than two in a person’s guilty and dangerous behavior. Each of the crimes must retain its independence and legal significance; separate elements of crimes are formed. At first glance, this is the same as a complex crime, but it is not. The difference is this:

These are the main points of difference between a single complex crime and a multiplicity of crimes. Thanks to these theses, law enforcers avoid many mistakes and difficulties in practice.

Qualification of complex individual crimes

The correlation and analysis of such crimes is a complex work, in which many questions and problems arise in practice.

That is why there are several rules that are presented below:

1. First of all, it is important to remember, no matter how many seemingly independent crimes a person may commit, they must all be covered by a single intent.
2. It is necessary to find a rule of law that combines all the signs of a crime as a single one. If there are several standards that are similar to each other, you need to choose the one that most accurately and closely relates to the real case.
3. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has a general and a special part; one must constantly refer to the first; it defines general concepts and phenomena that provide guidance in working with the second part.
4. The actions of a person must have all the hallmarks of a crime, and not an offense or other illegal act. Otherwise, prosecution under criminal law is impossible.

Qualification Rules

Speaking about the rules for qualifying individual complex crimes, it must be said that at this moment the employee correlates all the signs that were indicated above with the real case. The process of correlating the circumstances of the case and details with the norms of the law is called qualification. The basic rules in complex crimes are:

We have examined in some detail the basic concepts, types, and rules for qualifying a single complex crime. At the same time, it is necessary to note how a complex crime differs from a multiple one. Let's talk about this further.

Examples of complex crimes from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Moving on to examples, we will pay attention to compound crimes, since they are the most complex and confusing.

• Part 3 art. 313 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation discloses such a crime as escaping from a place of deprivation of liberty, during which violence was used that was recognized as dangerous to the life or health of the victim, or with a real threat of using such violence. Causing harm to human health is a separate crime, as is escape. It is impossible to qualify them as separate crimes, since there is part 3 of Art. 313 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
• Part 3 art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation describes the crime of fraud using one’s official position. In this case, two crimes came together into one offense - fraud and abuse of official powers and their use for personal gain.

In Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation there is a sign - murder associated with kidnapping. The latter forms an independent crime, designated in a separate article, although in Art. 105 he combines with murder.

Dealing with complex individual crimes using the examples provided above is much easier than studying the basics of theory. Let us note that it is extremely important to analyze each actually committed act into small parts in order not only to correctly qualify it, but also to understand the essence of crime as a whole.

Ongoing crime

An important feature of a continuing crime is that it includes identical offenses. That is, the criminal repeats actions that relate to the same crime. All these actions have a common goal.

• The official received the bribe in parts. Amounts of money were transferred to him at regular intervals.
• The caretaker steals building materials from the warehouse gradually, a bag every day.

The ongoing crime is characterized by:

• The presence of several identical actions.
• Their repetition after a short period of time and in the same environment.
• The fact that each of these actions cannot be defined as independent.
• The connection of all actions with a common plan.
• Having a single end goal.

In the event of a one-time theft of a large amount of property, the crime will be classified as theft on an especially large scale. But with the constant theft of small quantities, what was done falls under the concept of a continuing crime.