As a lawyer with many years of practice, I often encounter crimes committed in connection with street conflicts. People often come to me with the question, what to do if you “told” an inappropriate neighbor? Or when returning home from work, he met a hooligan who was the first to get into a fight, but in the end he himself ended up in a hospital bed. The article for causing grievous bodily harm provides for different degrees of punishment. I will talk about penalties for such crimes below.
Three main types of bodily injury
Bodily injuries in criminal law are divided into three main groups:
- Lungs characterized by short-term health disorder. Article 115 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is devoted to causing such harm.
- Moderate harm to health, which leads to long-term loss of ability to work, but is not life-threatening. Moderate harm to health does not imply the occurrence of any fatal, incurable consequences. Article 112 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation deals with causing moderate harm.
- Serious harm to health involves severe fatal consequences for the body. Serious harm is damage to health that is life-threatening. A special article regulating the issues of causing grievous harm is Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Note! An important feature of all crimes related to causing harm to health is intentionality. The offender must be aware of the essence of his actions and intentionally cause harm.
In addition to three groups of harm to health, the infliction of which is punishable by criminal law, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for liability for battery. Battery is the infliction of physical suffering on the victim that does not involve even slight harm to health. Articles 116 and 116.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are devoted to beatings.
How to prosecute a person responsible for grievous bodily harm?
In accordance with parts 1, 5 of Article 20 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, the crimes we are considering are cases of public prosecution.
This means that in order to initiate a criminal case a statement from the victim is not required ; the case is initiated by the investigative body upon the commission of a criminal act.
Victims who suffer serious harm to their health most likely end up in a hospital bed. Law enforcement agencies will learn about this fact within the first hours of going to the hospital. The victim will be immediately interviewed in writing and a referral for examination for the appropriate doctor.
To bring the perpetrator to justice, you need to remember all the circumstances of what happened and tell the investigator about everything in detail.
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If possible, you should involve a lawyer in the case as a representative of your interests during the investigation and in court. He does not need to prove the person’s involvement in the commission of a crime; establishing his guilt is the job of internal affairs officers. A lawyer in the case is necessary, first of all, to collect additional documents necessary for further recovery from the perpetrator of compensation for the harm caused.
If your friends were present when you were injured, it is necessary to convince them to also give evidence necessary for the investigation. Undergo a full forensic medical examination, tell in detail about the existing injuries and painful conditions to the medical examiner. This is where the role of the victim in helping to bring the perpetrator to justice should end.
Investigators are mostly professionals in their field and they know very well how to bring a case to trial.
Punishment for beatings
Battery in the criminal legal sense is considered to be the infliction of physical suffering, without causing harm to health, carried out from hooligan motives, or motivated by racial, religious, ideological hostility.
Causing battery may result in the following liability:
- compulsory work up to 360 hours;
- correctional labor for up to one year;
- restriction of freedom up to 2 years;
- forced labor for up to 2 years;
- arrest up to 3 months;
- imprisonment for up to 2 years.
Previously, Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation included, among other things, the infliction of beatings by a loved one, spouse or relative, but today these acts have been decriminalized and classified as administrative offenses.
The exception is Article 116.1, which imposes criminal liability for repeated commission of an act provided for by the Code of Administrative Offenses. According to the rules of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, if a person is brought to justice under one of its articles, within a year after the punishment for the offense has been executed in full, the person is considered to be brought to administrative responsibility. If during this year, a person allows himself to commit the same offense, it is already classified as a criminal offense.
Therefore, if a citizen managed to be charged with beatings in an administrative manner, after which, within a year, he committed the same thing, Article 116.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation will come into play. The possible punishment for this is as follows:
- fine up to 40,000 rubles;
- compulsory work up to 240 hours;
- correctional labor for up to 6 months;
- arrest up to 3 months.
Composition and characteristics of the crime
Please note that when investigating the composition of crimes that are similar to each other, prosecutors will have to take into account a huge number of factors before they can limit and separate crimes that are similar in composition and characteristics.
Analyzing the composition and characteristics of crimes committed by attackers, where harm is caused to human health, we can conclude that it can be very difficult .
The legislation distinguishes between crimes where the main object is harm to human health and where health takes a back seat, being an addition to the main element of the crime.
Such crimes involve robbery, robberies committed by attackers, banditry, where an additional victim may be a person. But the main motive for the crime in such cases is property.
Restrictions
When considering a case and establishing restrictions, the intent of the offender, the purpose and motive of the crime he committed are taken into account.
Article 111, part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is most closely related to articles incriminating such a type of crime as murder, but the intentional infliction of serious injuries to human health, which resulted in the death of the victim, is radically different from Article 105 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates premeditated murder.
Such restrictions are justified by the different content of the attacker’s intent.
Note! The limitation of the crime committed by the attacker is carried out on the basis of determining the object of the attack, which in one case is human health, and in others the seizure of someone else's property, where, under a combination of circumstances, a person may suffer.
When beaten
The motives of an attacker when causing harm to the human body pursue a variety of goals and, of course, are primarily taken into account by experts when investigating crimes.
Article 116 of the Criminal Code characterizes beating as repeated blows, which may not leave marks on the citizen’s body, but cause harm to his health, as well as other violent actions that cause pain. The sudden death makes its own adjustments to the investigation of the crime and introduces restrictions on its composition.
The actions of the attacker under this article are in most cases charged as hooliganism , but crimes similar to this, where beatings are only a complementary object, introduce restrictions into the characteristics of the crimes committed, where the main factor is the purpose and motive of the crime.
Articles 161 and 162 of the Criminal Code distinguish between crimes that cause harm to human health during robberies and robbery, from crimes where the main object of violence is a person . To distinguish between such actions, the specialist conducts an investigation specifically on the object.
In case of injury
When inflicting a penetrating wound to parts of the body that are not vital, the attacker, as a rule, is aware of the possibility of causing harm to human health, but does not assume that the person may die from the wound received, due to the prevailing circumstances.
Although this situation could have been foreseen, the criminal’s actions, according to his motives, are aimed at causing injury to a person.
The nature of the crime is limited by damage, with penetrating wounds to organs important to human life , where the offender could not be unaware of the fatal consequences after committing his actions.
Important! When specialists from law enforcement agencies distinguish between the nature and corpus delicti of a crime, special importance is given to determining the intent of criminal actions, which is characterized by the method of the crime committed, the nature of the injuries inflicted, the location of the damage, establishing the reason for the attacker’s termination of criminal actions, analysis of his subsequent behavior, etc.
Minor bodily injury, punishment
Mild harm to health is characterized by:
- Short term disability. Short-term loss means loss of ability to work for less than three weeks.
- Persistent, but insignificant, up to 10%, decrease in vital functions.
Note! Minor damage to health requires the victim to undergo some recovery, which will not significantly complicate his life. For minor harm, disability is excluded.
Article 115 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishes the following types of liability for causing minor harm to health:
- fine up to 40,000 rubles;
- compulsory work up to 480 hours;
- correctional labor for up to one year;
- arrest for up to 4 months.
The qualifying feature is the infliction of minor harm from hooligan motives, motivated by racial, political, religious, ideological hatred or with the use of weapons. If these circumstances occur, the punishment will be more severe:
- compulsory work up to 360 hours;
- correctional labor for up to one year;
- restriction of freedom up to 2 years;
- forced labor for up to 2 years;
- arrest up to 6 months;
- imprisonment for up to two years.
Expertise
Forensic examination allows one to qualify the physical injuries inflicted on the victim based on their characteristics .
During its implementation, the nature and cause of the damage .
It establishes their connection with harm to the human health of the victim, as well as the circumstances of the citizen’s death.
An examination that qualifies bodily injuries implies a reflection of their characteristic features, which are included in the conclusion. Analysis of the damage received determines:
- nature and characteristics of bodily injuries;
- the object that caused the injury;
- mechanism of injury;
- the period of time during which the damage occurred;
- the degree of harm caused to human health.
The last paragraph provides for the specialist to indicate a qualifying characteristic that helps determine the degree of threat to the human health or life of the victim, and possible loss of ability to work.
Moderate bodily harm, punishment
Moderate health harm is characterized by prolonged, more than three weeks, loss of ability to work, or a persistent decrease in one or more vital functions in the range of 10 to 30 percent. That is, after causing moderate harm to health, the victim will have to undergo treatment and rehabilitation for quite a long time, but in the end he will be able to return to normal life and nothing threatens his life.
Article 112 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishes the following punishment options:
- restriction of freedom up to 3 years;
- forced labor for up to 3 years;
- arrest up to 6 months;
- imprisonment for up to 3 years.
Part two establishes liability for committing the same act, but in the presence of aggravating circumstances. For example, the presence of two or more victims, the young age of the victim, or the hooligan motives of the offender are considered aggravating factors. If such circumstances exist, punishment is possible only in the form of imprisonment for a term of up to 5 years.
Separately, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishes liability for:
- Causing moderate harm in cases where the offender is in a state of strong emotional arousal - Article 113. Punishment for such an act can be correctional labor for up to 2 years, restriction of freedom for up to 2 years, forced labor for up to 2 years and imprisonment for the same period.
- Causing moderate harm to health when exceeding the limits of necessary defense - part 1 of article 114 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Such excess is punishable by correctional labor for up to one year, restriction of freedom for up to one year, forced labor for up to one year, or imprisonment for the same period.
- Infliction of harm of moderate gravity resulting from exceeding the measures necessary to detain a criminal, part 2 of the same article, is punishable by correctional labor for up to 2 years, restriction of freedom for up to 2 years, forced labor for up to two years, or imprisonment for the same term. .
Serious bodily harm, punishment
Serious bodily harm is characterized by its exceptional danger to the victim. Harm that results in, among other things:
- the need to assign a disability group to the victim;
- loss of the victim's hearing, vision, and ability to speak;
- serious mental disorder;
- loss of one or more limbs;
- abortion.
Note! It does not matter whether the fatal consequences were caused directly by the harm, or whether the harm was provoked and aggravated by the victim’s chronic disease.
Causing serious harm to health is punishable exclusively strictly and only by imprisonment:
- for simple, unskilled infliction: up to 8 years;
- if the harm to health was caused for hooligan reasons, for hire, using a socially dangerous method or weapon, as well as in order to obtain and use the victim’s organs and tissues: up to 10 years, with restriction of freedom up to 2 years;
- if there was more than one victim, or if the crime was committed by a group of persons: up to 12 years, with restriction of freedom up to 2 years;
- if the victim died as a result: up to 15 years, with restriction of freedom up to 2 years.
If serious harm to health was caused in a state of passion, if the limits of self-defense or measures of detention are exceeded, the offender is punished in the same way as for the same acts that led to moderate harm to health.
Statement to the police about bodily harm, sample
You can file a personal injury report at any police station. The degree of severity of the health that was caused to the victim can only be determined by a medical examination that will be carried out during the investigation. However, if after the act of causing harm, the victim sought help from doctors, the resulting report describing the injuries can be attached to the application.
It is better to prepare the application in writing, although even if the victim does not do this, the department employee is obliged to listen to the testimony, draw up a protocol and have it signed by the victim and accepted for consideration.
Note! The statement must briefly but succinctly describe everything that happened. Only facts should be mentioned. Speculation and emotions are inappropriate in this case. The application must be signed and dated by the victim.
There is no approved form for a statement to the police; it can be presented freely; as a possible example, you can consider the option offered at this link.
