The concept and characteristics of the subject of a crime. Special subject of the crime. Sanity and its signs. Age-related insanity.

The obligatory elements of the crime include the subject of the crime , i.e. person who committed a criminal act. The absence in the act of signs of the subject of a crime established by criminal law indicates the absence of corpus delicti. Therefore, in relation to the acts of minors or mentally ill people, no matter how high the degree of danger they pose, the terms “criminal act” and “crime” are not used. The view of the characteristics of the subject of a crime as an element of the crime was established in Russian criminal law back in the last century.

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.

The main signs of the subject of the crime

Art. 19 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation indicates three mandatory signs that characterize a person as a subject of a crime:

1. physical property;
2. reaching the age established by criminal law;
3. sanity.

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 .”

Age of the subject of the crime

The Criminal Code establishes the age at which a person can be considered a subject of a crime. Article 20 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation defines two age criteria:

1. sixteen years;
2. fourteen years old.

According to the general rule, criminal liability begins when a person reaches the age of sixteen (Part 1 of Article 20 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This criterion is determined by the psychophysiological characteristics of a person who has reached the specified age. It is believed that he is at a level of intellectual development and social maturity that allows him to adequately assess the social significance of his actions and choose the right course of action. The ability to make informed decisions also presupposes the ability of a person to bear responsibility for them.

An exception to the general rule is the establishment of a second age criterion - fourteen years . The list of crimes for which responsibility occurs upon reaching the specified age is given in Part 2 of Art. 20 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It covers acts that constitute the main crime of minors aged 14 to 16 years. Their social orientation and social danger for teenagers is obvious and easy to understand. The crimes contained in the list are directed against life, health, sexual freedom, property, public safety and public order. Almost all of them are intentional (the exception is rendering vehicles or means of communication unusable - Article 267 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This list is exhaustive and is not subject to broad interpretation.

More details

If a person who has reached the age of 14 takes part in the commission of a crime for which responsibility begins at the age of 16, his actions either do not form a crime at all and, therefore, he cannot be held criminally liable, or he is liable only for the act the subject of which is recognized as a person at this age. For example, the subject of banditry (Article 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), mass riots (Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) is a person who has reached 16 years of age. However, these crimes may include intentional destruction or damage to property, murder, rape, etc., responsibility for which begins at the age of 14. A teenager who has reached the specified age should be held accountable only for those crimes committed as part of a gang or during mass riots, for which responsibility is provided from the age of 14. It must be borne in mind that a significant number of norms of the Special Part provide for liability for acts that may occur when a person reaches an older age than 16 years. Thus, the subject of involving a minor in the commission of a crime (Article 150 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and in the commission of antisocial actions (Article 151 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), violation of traffic safety rules and operation of railway, air and water transport (Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), etc. crimes may be committed by a person over 18 years of age.

A person is considered to have reached the age at which criminal liability begins, not on his birthday, but after the day on which this day falls, i.e. from zero o'clock the next day. When establishing age by a forensic medical examination, his birthday is considered the last day of the year that is named by experts, and when determining age, the minimum and maximum number of years should be based on the minimum age of such a person proposed by experts.

There are no maximum age limits established in the Criminal Code. Consequently, a person who committed a crime in old age or even old age is recognized as the subject of a crime. However, it must be borne in mind that in relation to such a person there are restrictions on the application of certain types of punishment (for example, the death penalty cannot be imposed on men who have reached 65 years of age at the time the court pronounces the verdict - Article 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

In accordance with Part 3 of Art. 20 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, if a minor has reached the age specified in the law, but due to mental retardation not associated with a mental disorder, during the commission of a socially dangerous act, he could not fully understand the actual nature and social danger of his actions (inaction) or direct by them, he is not subject to criminal liability. age-related insanity occurs , i.e. discrepancy between the mental development of a teenager and his actual age. It is characterized by three features:

1. retardation in mental development, not associated with a mental disorder, but due to individual age-related characteristics of the intellectual-volitional sphere;
2. limited opportunity, i.e. the inability of a person to fully understand the actual nature and social danger of his actions (inaction) or to manage them;
3. temporary (temporal), meaning that it was at the moment of committing a socially dangerous act that the specified developmental delay and limited ability influenced the behavior of the minor.

References

Regulatory acts

1. Constitution of the Russian Federation. Adopted by popular vote on December 12, 1993 // Russian newspaper. 1993 (as amended in 2022)
2. Criminal Code of the Russian Federation No. 63-FZ of June 13, 1996 (as amended on March 14, 2019).
3. Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Part one. Federal Law of November 30, 1994 No. 51-FZ (as amended on October 4, 2019)
4. Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 15 of December 22, 1992 “On judicial practice in cases of premeditated murders” (reference and information system Consultant +)

Basic literature and electronic resources

1. Composition of the crime - Wikipedia. [electron. resource]: Access mode - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_delicti Date of access: 04/12/2020
2. The subject of the crime and the subject of the crime as signs of the object and objective side of the crime / Vinokurov V.N. / M.: 2022. No. 13.
3. Criminal law. General part: textbook./ Ivanov V.D/. — Rostov-on-Don: 2022.
4. On the corpus delicti / Chernov R.P. / Advocate. 2016. No. 10.
5. Russian criminal law. Lectures. Part General./ Tagantsev N.S./ M., 1994.1 volume
6. Theoretical issues of criminal liability./ Santalov A.I./ L.: 2022.
7. Object and objective side of the crime [electronic. resource]: Access mode - https://www.zapros-otvet.ru/obekt-i-obektivnaya-storona-prestupleniya-page2.html. Access date 04/12/2020
8. The subject and the subjective side of the crime [electronic. resource]: Access mode - https://www.zapros-otvet.ru/subekt-i-subektivnaya-storona-prestupleniya.html. Access date 04/12/2020

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Sanity as a sign of the subject of a crime

Sanity as a sign of the subject of a crime means the ability of a person, during the commission of a socially dangerous act, to realize the actual nature and social danger of his actions (inaction) and to direct them.

Criminal legislation does not provide the concept of sanity; it formulates the concept of insanity , which is its antipode. In accordance with Part 1 of Art. 21 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a person who, at the time of committing a socially dangerous act, was in a state of insanity, is not subject to criminal liability, i.e. could not realize the actual nature and social danger of his actions (inaction) or manage them due to a chronic mental disorder, temporary mental disorder, dementia or other painful mental state.

Thus, insanity is formed due to the combination of two criteria:

• medical (biological);
• legal (psychological).

The medical (biological) criterion covers:

1. chronic mental disorder - a disease that tends to progress and is difficult to treat or even incurable (schizophrenia, epilepsy, paranoia, etc.);
2. temporary mental disorder - a disease that ends with recovery (pathological intoxication, pathological affect, reactive states, etc.);
3. dementia - congenital or acquired decrease or complete loss of intellectual functions; there are three degrees of it: debility, imbecility and idiocy;
4. other morbid state of the psyche is a collective concept that covers diseases that do not belong to mental disorders, but are accompanied by mental disorders (withdrawal state - drug starvation, acute hallucinatory delusional states with typhoid or typhus, etc.).

The legal (psychological) criterion is characterized by two features:

1. intellectual;
2. strong-willed.

An intellectual sign is expressed in the fact that a person is incapable of realizing the actual nature and social danger of his actions (inaction), and a volitional sign is expressed in his inability to manage his behavior. To have a legal criterion, one of the indicated signs is sufficient. This means that a person can be declared insane even if, for example, he was aware of the social significance of his behavior, but could not control it.

Medical and legal criteria are inextricably unified and complement each other. Only the presence of their combination constitutes insanity.

A person who has committed a socially dangerous act provided for by criminal law in a state of insanity may be imposed compulsory medical measures by the court (Part 2 of Article 21 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The state of so-called simple or ordinary intoxication does not exclude sanity. In accordance with Art. 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a person who commits a crime while intoxicated due to the use of alcohol, drugs or other intoxicating substances is subject to criminal liability.

Criminal liability of persons with a mental disorder that does not exclude sanity

In accordance with Part 1 of Art. 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a sane person who, at the time of committing a crime due to a mental disorder, could not fully understand the actual nature and social danger of his actions (inaction) or direct them, is subject to criminal liability. In this case we are talking about limited (reduced) sanity . Limited sanity is not an intermediate state between sanity and insanity, but characterizes the degree of manifestation of sanity, reflecting the narrowing of a person’s ability to realize the social significance of his behavior and manage it.

Like insanity, it is established on the basis of medical, legal and temporal criteria.

The medical criterion of limited sanity, in contrast to the similar basis of insanity, is specific. In this case, the person’s mental disorder is not pathological in nature, i.e., it is not recognized as a mental illness. In psychiatry, this disorder is classified as a mental abnormality - a deviation from the norm. The latter include a wide range of neuropsychic disorders: psychopathy, character accentuations, disorders of desires and habits, etc.

The legal criterion of limited sanity also has a peculiarity and is characterized by a partial decrease in the intellectual and volitional abilities of a person. Such a person retains the ability to realize the actual nature and social danger of the act he commits (intellectual moment), to control his behavior (volitional moment), but not to the fullest extent. To establish this criterion, one of the specified moments is sufficient - intellectual or volitional. By the way, a decrease in the intellectual sphere, as a rule, entails a decrease in a person’s volitional abilities.

The simultaneous presence of medical and legal criteria of limited sanity is associated by law with the time of commission of the crime.

Determination of whether a person has a mental disorder that does not exclude sanity is carried out by the court on the basis of a comprehensive forensic psychological and psychiatric examination.

According to Part 2 of Art. 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the state of limited sanity has a dual criminal legal meaning:

1. it is taken into account by the court when assigning punishment (only as a mitigating circumstance, since the list of aggravating factors is exhaustive);
2. serves as a basis for the application of compulsory medical measures.

For a person who has committed a crime in a state of mental disorder that does not preclude sanity, the court, along with punishment, may apply a compulsory medical measure in the form of outpatient observation and treatment by a psychiatrist (Part 2 of Article 99 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Additional signs of a crime subject

In some elements of the crime, the subject of the crime, along with such signs as age and sanity, is characterized by additional signs that reflect the specifics of the offense and limit the circle of persons who may be responsible for its commission. In this case, we are talking about a special subject , which is understood as a person who, in addition to sanity and reaching the age of criminal responsibility, has additional legal characteristics provided for by criminal law that are mandatory (constructive) for a specific crime. These signs limit the circle of persons who can be recognized as the perpetrator of such a crime.

The signs of a special subject can be directly indicated in the articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (for example, an employee of railway, air or water transport - Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; citizen of the Russian Federation - Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, etc.) or are established by interpreting the criminal law ( for example, when a minor is involved in committing a crime or in committing antisocial actions - Articles 150, 151 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; when obstructing legitimate business or other activities - Article 169 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, etc.).

The absence of signs of a special subject provided for by a specific article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation excludes criminal liability under this article. However, the actions of a person in this case can be qualified under the articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provide for the liability of a common subject. A person who is not the subject of a crime specifically specified in the relevant article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, who participated in the commission of a crime provided for by this article, bears criminal liability as its organizer, instigator or accomplice (Article 34 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The signs of a special subject are optional, so they can manifest themselves in one of three meanings:

• constitutive features of the main composition (Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);
• qualifying characteristics (Part 2 of Article 150 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);
• circumstances mitigating or aggravating punishment (clause “m” of Article 63 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

A special subject is distinguished by:

1. citizenship of the person (Articles 275, 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);
2. demographic basis (Article 131 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);
3. family and kinship relations (Articles 156, 157 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);
4. official position (Articles 285, 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);
5. professional activities (Articles 124, 143 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);
6. in relation to military service (Articles 328, 331 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Introduction

The general concept of corpus delicti has great scientific and educational significance and is a necessary step in the process of learning specific elements of crimes not only in the educational process, but also in the activities of preliminary investigation bodies and courts. The general concept of corpus delicti is recognized as the theoretical basis for the correct qualification of the crime committed.

Establishing in a particular act the signs of the corresponding corpus delicti and establishing the truth in a specific criminal case is achieved only through qualification, and the latter acts as a legal basis for bringing a person to criminal responsibility, applying coercive measures, bringing charges, bringing them to trial, and imposing punishment. The correct classification of crimes is an indispensable observance of the principle of legality of the court, prosecutorial authorities, investigative and inquiry bodies.

The main significance of the corpus delicti lies in the fact that it can constitute the basis of criminal liability: a person can be held criminally liable if and only if his act contains all the elements of a crime, when he has fully realized a certain corpus delicti.

In addition, the corpus delicti plays an important role in the qualification of crimes: from the total mass of signs of a particular act, the signs of the crime are identified, which, in turn, are put in accordance with the legal signs enshrined in the disposition of the criminal law norm.