Theft: the subject and object of the crime according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the latest edition:

Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Theft

1. Theft, that is, the secret theft of someone else’s property, -

shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of up to eighty thousand rubles, or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to six months, or by compulsory labor for a term of up to three hundred sixty hours, or by corrective labor for a term of up to one year, or by restriction of liberty for a term of up to two years. , or forced labor for a term of up to two years, or arrest for a term of up to four months, or imprisonment for a term of up to two years.

2. Theft committed:

a) by a group of persons by prior conspiracy;

b) with illegal entry into the premises or other storage;

c) causing significant damage to a citizen;

d) from clothes, bags or other hand luggage that were with the victim -

shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of up to two hundred thousand rubles, or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to eighteen months, or by compulsory labor for a term of up to four hundred eighty hours, or by corrective labor for a term of up to two years, or by forced labor for a term of up to five years. with restriction of freedom for a term of up to one year or without it, or imprisonment for a term of up to five years with restriction of freedom for a term of up to one year or without it.

3. Theft committed:

a) with illegal entry into a home;

b) from an oil pipeline, oil product pipeline, gas pipeline;

c) on a large scale;

d) from a bank account, as well as in relation to electronic money (in the absence of signs of a crime provided for in Article 159.3 of this Code) -

shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand rubles, or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of one to three years, or by forced labor for a term of up to five years with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to one and a half years, or imprisonment for a term of up to six years with a fine in the amount of up to eighty thousand rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to six months or without it and with restriction of freedom for a term of up to one and a half years or without it.

4. Theft committed:

a) an organized group;

b) on an especially large scale, -

shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to ten years with or without a fine in the amount of up to one million rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to five years and with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to two years.

Notes. 1. In the articles of this Code, theft refers to the illegal gratuitous seizure and (or) conversion of someone else’s property for the benefit of the perpetrator or other persons, committed for mercenary purposes, causing damage to the owner or other holder of this property.

2. Significant damage to a citizen in the articles of this chapter, with the exception of part five of Article 159, is determined taking into account his property status, but cannot be less than five thousand rubles.

3. In the articles of this chapter, premises are understood as buildings and structures, regardless of the form of ownership, intended for the temporary residence of people or the placement of material assets for production or other official purposes.

In the articles of this chapter, storage means utility premises separated from residential buildings, areas of territory, pipelines, and other structures, regardless of the form of ownership, that are intended for permanent or temporary storage of material assets.

4. In the articles of this chapter, with the exception of parts six and seven of Article 159, Articles 159.1 and 159.5, large size is recognized as the value of property exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand rubles, and especially large - one million rubles.

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Concept, signs and subject of theft

The concept of theft is given in Appendix 1 to Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The main object of the crimes included in Chapter 21 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should be considered property relations in the broad, economic sense of the term. The essence of these relations is determined by their object - they develop regarding the appropriation and circulation of material (more precisely, property, i.e. valued in money) benefits. In the terminology of civil law, these relations are called property relations.

The subject of theft may be someone else's property, but not any property listed in Art. 128 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, can be the subject of theft, but only if it has three characteristics: real, economic and legal.

1) Property sign

The material attribute of property as the subject of theft presupposes that the property as the subject of theft must have a certain physical form, i.e. its material substance can be perceived by the senses in the objective world.

Accordingly, cannot be the subject of theft :

• intellectual property and rights arising from it (Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). On the one hand, encroachments on intellectual property form independent elements of crime (for example, Articles 146 - 147, 180 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). On the other hand, the subject of theft may be things in which intellectual property is embodied (for example, manuscripts, cassettes, disks, etc.), however, in order to qualify as theft, such items must be stolen solely for their own sake, and not for the sake of what is recorded in them;
• information , attacks on which may in some cases be qualified under Art. Art. 183, 272, 275, 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation;
• water, gas, thermal, electric and other types of energy , as well as radio services, telephone services and Internet services provided to consumers, the unlawful use of which should be qualified under Art. 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation;
• so-called legitimation signs , i.e. numbered tokens of wardrobes and storage rooms, other signs certifying the acceptance of things for storage, bank client cards, etc., as well as documents granting the right to receive someone else's property, but not being securities (for example, documents for access to bank safe, pawnshop receipts). The theft of these items should be classified as preparation for fraud.

May be subject to theft:

• things (both movable and immovable). At the same time, immovable things can be the subject of theft both if these things are immovable by force of law (aircraft and sea vessels, inland navigation vessels, etc.), when all forms of theft are possible in relation to them, and if if these things are immovable due to their nature (in this situation only fraud is possible). If property that is immovable by nature can be turned into movable property (for example, by dismantling a house into logs), then all forms of theft are possible;
• money in any currency, but at the same time being cash and genuine;
• securities;
• so-called money surrogates , i.e. bearer documents that act as a monetary equivalent when paying for certain goods, works or services: coupons for fuel and lubricants, subscription books, travel tickets and coupons, payment tokens, postage signs.

2) Economic sign

The economic attribute of property as a subject of theft suggests that it can only be something that has objective economic value.

3) Legal attribute

The legal attribute of property as the subject of theft presupposes, firstly, that it is not withdrawn from free civil circulation and has limited negotiability (Article 129 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) and, secondly, that it is alien to the perpetrator in the legal sense.

The theft of objects withdrawn from circulation and of limited circulation is, as a rule, provided for by special provisions of the criminal law (for example, Article 221 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Theft or extortion of nuclear materials or radioactive substances”, 226 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Theft or extortion of weapons, ammunition, explosives and explosive devices", 229 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Theft or extortion of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, as well as plants containing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, or their parts containing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances", 325 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Theft or damage to documents, stamps , seals or theft of excise stamps, special stamps or marks of conformity"), and only in the absence of such a special norm the theft of the relevant items can be qualified according to the norms of Chapter. 21 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The second element of the legal property property presupposes that the property is alien , i.e. is in the actual possession of another person at the time of theft and does not belong to the thief by right of ownership. The actual possession of another person does not necessarily require legal title to this property: therefore, it is possible to steal an item that has already been stolen.

Encroachment on one's own things or rights, or those whose ownership of a given subject is disputed, does not constitute theft, but may entail liability for arbitrariness (Article 330 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Article 19.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

Signs of theft

The objective side of theft includes:

• act - illegal gratuitous seizure and (or) circulation of someone else's property in favor of the offender or other persons;
• consequences - causing property damage to the owner or other owner of the property;
• causal relationship between the act and the consequences.

Seizure should be understood as the extraction (exclusion, removal, withdrawal) of property from the possession of the owner or another owner, and circulation - as the transfer (entry, transfer) of property into the illegal actual possession of another person.

The illegality of seizure and treatment presupposes that the perpetrator has no actual or perceived right to the stolen property. A conscientious mistake in the presence of such a right excludes liability for theft and may, if there are grounds for this, be qualified under Art. 330 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Gratuitousness occurs in the absence of adequate compensation for the value of the seized property. It should be taken into account that the presence of adequate (equivalent) compensation in itself does not transform an unlawful seizure and (or) treatment into a lawful one. Simply, in the presence of such compensation, there is no element of theft, which does not exclude the classification of the offense under other articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (for example, under Articles 330, 285, 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Gratuitousness should be understood as the absence of full compensation for stolen property. Partial compensation for stolen property does not exclude criminal liability.

The circulation of property in favor of a guilty person or another person in the concept of theft means ensuring the actual ability of these persons to own, use and dispose of someone else’s property as their own. Thus, the selfish goal of theft is realized. Temporary borrowing of money and temporary possession and use of other things are not considered theft, but entail liability, for example, for unlawful taking of a car (Article 166 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), for causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust (Article 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) , for abuse of power (Article 202 or 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The theft of property solely for the purpose of its destruction (damage) cannot be considered as theft, since it does not bring any direct benefit to the perpetrator or other persons. Indirect benefit (even if associated with a selfish motive) (for example, killing a competitor’s racehorse after theft) cannot indicate theft.

Causing damage . The law, in defining the concept of theft, directly refers to causing damage to the owner or other possessor of property. However, it is not stated that ownership of property must necessarily be legal. This should be understood in the sense that property that is in unlawful possession, including stolen property, can also be stolen.

The subjective side of theft (Articles 158 - 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) is characterized by direct intent and a selfish motive, implying the desire of the perpetrator to enrich himself or to enrich other persons in whose enrichment he is interested (relatives, friends, creditors of the perpetrator, his accomplices in the commission of a crime, etc.). P.). Accordingly, as already mentioned above, there are no signs of theft in cases of so-called temporary borrowing, when property is withdrawn for a while and then returned.

How to report a criminal?

If you discover that you have become a victim of theft, the first thing you should do is contact the police. You must have identification documents with you. You can fill out an application at the police station when you are offered it, or you can do it at home, based on the following recommendations:

• First you need to write down the details of the head of the police department you are contacting.
• Then the full name of the victim is indicated, as well as his contact information, including address.
• The main body of text includes information about what happened. Try to provide as much detail as possible - when, where, under what circumstances the property disappeared, what kind of property it was, approximate value, etc.
• The statement ends with a specific request(s) to the police officers: to find the criminals, punish them, return property, etc.

A sample statement of theft is offered.
Please note that the more details are provided, the faster and better the investigation will be. You need to act as quickly as possible, since criminals will probably want to sell the stolen property as soon as possible. In this case, it will be difficult to find the criminals themselves, and the property will not be returned.

Forms and types of theft

According to the method of committing, theft is divided into 6 forms: secret (theft), open (robbery), by deception or abuse of trust (fraud), by attack combined with violence dangerous to life or health, or with the threat of such violence (robbery) , theft of entrusted property through misappropriation or embezzlement. Fraud, in turn, has 6 special types associated with additional methods or scope of commission (Part 5 of Article 159, Articles 159.1 - 159.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Types of theft are distinguished depending on the size of the theft, determined by the value of the stolen property at the time of the crime. According to this criterion, the law distinguishes petty theft, “simple”, large-scale and especially large-scale theft.

Petty theft is provided for in Art. 7.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and Art. 158.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Petty theft does not include robbery and robbery, as well as all other forms of theft if they were committed under qualifying circumstances.

Part 1 of Art. 7.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for petty theft of someone else’s property, the value of which does not exceed 1,000 rubles, through theft, fraud, misappropriation or embezzlement; Part 2 of this article, under the same conditions, increases liability for theft of property worth more than 1,000, but not more than 2,500 rubles.

As a crime (Article 158.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), petty theft of someone else’s property committed by a person subjected to administrative punishment for petty theft, provided for in Part 2 of Art. 7.27 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

Theft on a large scale (qualified type) is committed in an amount exceeding 250,000 rubles, and on an especially large scale - exceeding 1,000,000 rubles (note 4 to Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

A special type of theft is theft that caused significant damage to a citizen (qualified type of theft, fraud, misappropriation and embezzlement). In this case, the victim is only an individual, the value of the stolen property must exceed 5,000 rubles, and the significance of the damage is determined taking into account the property status of the victim (note 2 to Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Theft subject of the crime

Responsibility rests with persons aged 14 years and older (Article 20 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Only a citizen who has committed an act upon reaching the legal age and is able to account for his own actions can be held liable in a criminal case.

This determines the main legal characteristics of the subject of theft:

• Sanity is the mental state of a citizen and the level of socio-psychological development. A person performs actions consciously, understanding their danger to others, guided by his own ideas and plans. In the case of mental defects, criminal liability is not excluded, but can be replaced by compulsory medical treatment of the patient, if this fact is confirmed and proven;
• Age: 14 years old on the date of the theft.

In the latter case, age begins to be calculated from the next day after the birthday according to local time (from 00:00).