A single crime is not only an illegal act, but also unambiguous in its concept. Such cases are not classified as those that are committed for the first time, that is, a crime cannot be called such if a person committed it only once. Any violation of legal norms and rules is punishable by restrictions established in several or one article. The latter speaks about the nature of the crime, as a specific case that is not covered by other articles and laws. This is where the concept of a single crime is formed as a separate component and element of the entire criminal case.
Crimes: simple types
A simple single crime is regulated to the extent of the chosen punishment in relation to the articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. An act committed by a person is interpreted as one action that has a single consequence. For example, murder as the only act resulted in the death of the victim (one consequence). If during a robbery things were stolen and a person was killed, then these are two consequences of two different acts. It turns out that in one moment you can commit two different crimes that have different consequences. Moreover, if a person is suspected and accused in a formal manner, that is, presumptively, then the law provides for the consideration of all possible versions of the attacker.
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.
Examples from judicial practice
Let's say a person has alimony debts, which he avoids. According to Article 157 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, he may be punished for this. But if he conspired with the management and forced him to transfer money not to a card, but to a personal account in order to evade deductions from his salary, then several acts were committed here:
- Evasion is malicious, which is punishable by one article.
- A crime against the life and health of a child, which is punishable by another article.
At the same time, the boss, accountant or authorized person who issued the criminal’s salary to a non-card account may also come under investigation for complicity. He will also be charged with another article - an economic crime, and as a result, tax evasion. These types of isolated crimes are quite common in judicial practice. The consequence may also be an alternative act indirectly related to the present case.
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.
Example based on articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
A single crime is characterized by one action, and how many consequences it entailed is not a matter of first importance in classifying the nature of the act. For example, an unemployed person is unable to feed himself. He decides to rob an apartment in a large elite multi-story building. Having miscalculated, the attacker gets inside and discovers the presence of the owners inside the premises. Once noticed, he kills the property owner out of fear and robs the apartment.
As a result, he commits two actions:
- According to Article 185 Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - burglary.
- According to Article 115 Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - murder, intentional, unintentional.
As a result, it turns out that a person committed two different atrocities that had different consequences. If a pensioner died from fright at the sight of a robber, then this would be an isolated crime, entailing two consequences - theft and murder by negligence. The last article can be re-qualified. Since the murder was not direct, no bodily harm was inflicted, death by negligence will be interpreted by the content of a different article. Thus, Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation will more clearly reflect the intentions of the criminal in this case.
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.
Complex forms of action
Complicated forms of single crimes are understood as acts committed in the form of one action, due to which new circumstances of the case arise as a result. Because of this, they drag on for several years until the cause is established, which entails a number of complications. They may also influence the course of the investigation if the person is found not guilty of additional crimes. As Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation describes the case, murder by negligence can be caused by various previous actions - directed or not directed towards the victim.
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.
Complicated acts
An ongoing crime is characterized by the presence of several elements that need to be checked. This raises a legitimate question: how long will each version be checked before the statute of limitations expires? In specific cases, for two out of three reasons, we can talk about complications of the investigation. When a person is seriously injured, the investigation determines whether the patient will recover or die. In the first case, the prosecutor's office is faced with one investigation, and in the second, with a number of complications.
The signs of a single crime of a continuing type can be characterized as a crime committed, which has a continuation in the form of non-cessation of the crime. This does not mean that a person who committed theft for the first time and was released with a fine can go and commit a repeat robbery. Here we are talking about a different meaning, where a single crime has quite diverse examples.
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.
Example of a continuing complicated crime
The father of two children stops paying alimony - the beginning of a crime begins. In this case, the court makes a decision to collect the debt in a forced form. Then the person continues not to pay, and accordingly, the crime against life and health indirectly continues. When he is convicted of non-payment, the crime will cease. Similar cases can be cited from different areas, where the starting point for counting the future end is the opening of a case in administrative or criminal proceedings. It is worth noting that requalification is also possible in the opposite direction:
- If a person commits theft, for example, he is punished under a criminal article.
- If a truce is concluded between the parties during a confrontation and an agreement is signed to terminate the case, then the article is reclassified as administrative.
- In the case when a repeated single crime is committed, the articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation can collectively form a single punishment by partial addition of several parts or an article if it concerns a separate chapter of atrocities.
Also, for a number of ongoing crimes, the Criminal Code provides for one article for imposing punishment.
Continuing crimes: cases and features
For a number of crimes that have begun and continue, separate parts of criminal articles from codes and laws are provided. This distinguishes them from a set of preventive measures, when it is required to make a general decision in one case for several consequences of a single offense. Such methods of punishment can be applied to persons who:
- They hold a person in captivity - the beginning of the crime is considered to be kidnapping, and the consequence will be detention for a certain time. If death occurs, then this is no longer an isolated act.
- Evasion from reporting to duty is a violation of an order and continued failure to comply with it. Here it is worth immediately considering several consequences, each of which may have complications.
- Inappropriate storage of weapons - the beginning will be considered when this fact is established. Only then can we talk about improper storage of the item. If violations of documents for the storage and use of weapons, use other than for the purposes for which they were intended, injury or death due to the use of weapons are revealed, then these actions are regarded as long-term consequences of one isolated case. The reluctance to correct documents and register weapons as required will continue.
Thus, almost all atrocities can be divided into two subcategories - committed and committed, but not completed.
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.
Plurality of atrocities
A caught criminal may be charged with a single crime until he is found guilty of the others. As a result, recidivism, proven through the issuance of expert opinions and prosecutorial verification, makes a single act for each act a cumulative set. The difference between multiple crimes and single crimes is based on the identified evidence and factors that confirm that a single person committed several atrocities under different articles. They may be isolated individually, but collectively they are likely to be convicted for several cases at once, even if they occurred at different times and years.
Reclassification of crimes
There is such a thing as multiple crimes, which are reclassified from a single one. Let's say one person did a wrong thing, and then helped a group of people do the same thing. This may be an act that is punishable under one article, for example, breaking into a house and helping other participants in entering, who deliberately did this or through blackmail forced the only robber, for example, “to share with them.” Such an act, of course, will be regarded as initially single, and then multiple. But the court will make a decision on the basis of intentionality - that is, if the theft was planned and committed according to an invented scheme by one person, then this still needs to be proven, but the court will condemn each person individually for each act committed.
Single crime
A single crime is an act that contains elements of one crime and is classified under one article or part thereof. Such an act can be carried out either by one action (inaction) or by a system of actions (acts of inaction), may entail one or more consequences, may be committed with one or two forms of guilt (in relation to different consequences), but in all these cases it remains a single crime and is not covered by the concept of plurality.
According to their legislative design, all individual crimes are divided into simple and complex.
Simple single crimes
Simple individual crimes encroach on one object, are carried out by one act, are characterized by one form of guilt, contain one corpus delicti, provided for by one article or part thereof. An example of a simple single crime is theft, i.e. secret theft of someone else's property. Theft encroaches on one object - social relations in the sphere of distribution of material goods, is carried out by a single action - the seizure and (or) circulation of someone else's property in favor of the perpetrator, is committed with direct intent and is qualified under Part 1 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which presupposes the presence of all the elements of a crime - theft. In law enforcement activities, there are no difficulties in distinguishing between single simple crimes and multiplicity.
The situation is different with isolated complex crimes.
Complex single crimes
Complex individual crimes are acts that encroach on several objects, characterized by a complicated objective side, the presence of two forms of guilt or additional consequences (See the corpus delicti).
Types of complex single crimes:
- composite;
- with alternative actions or with alternative consequences;
- lasting;
- continued;
- complicated by additional grave consequences and the presence of two forms of guilt in relation to different consequences.
Compound crimes are acts composed of two or more actions (acts of inaction), each of which is provided for by the Criminal Code as an independent crime. This is how, for example, the offense of robbery is constructed (Article 162 of the Criminal Code). In robbery, the criminal goal of taking possession of someone else's property is achieved through such socially dangerous means as violence dangerous to the life or health of the victim, or the threat of using such violence.
In such cases, individual isolated criminal actions (violence against a person and theft or attempted theft of someone else’s property) form one (single) complex crime - robbery, which has an increased public danger compared to the public danger of the criminal actions that are part of this crime. simultaneously on two objects (property relations and life or health of the individual). One of them is recognized by the legislator as mandatory and basic, which determines the placement of the norm in a certain chapter of the Criminal Code, the second is also mandatory, but additional, which does not detract from its criminal legal significance.
Component crimes include hooliganism (Article 213 of the Criminal Code), which simultaneously encroaches on such law-protected interests as public order and personality, and in some cases, on property relations. Thus, compound crimes always turn out to be two- or multi-objective. Some scientists believe that it would be more correct to define a compound crime as an act (action or inaction) that directly encroaches on at least two objects of criminal legal protection.
The specificity of a crime with alternative actions is that the commission of any of the actions (inaction) listed in the disposition of the article is sufficient to recognize the existence of a crime. For example, in Part 2 of Art. 228 of the Criminal Code refers to a single crime (illegal acquisition or storage for the purpose of selling, manufacturing, processing, transportation, transfer or sale of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances), which is recognized as completed when one or more of the listed alternative actions are committed. At the same time, the subject does not commit a new crime if he commits two or all of those named in Art. 228 of the Criminal Code, for example, first illegally acquires narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, stores them, and then sells them.
Complex single crimes are also crimes with alternative consequences . For example, intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm may entail one or more of the consequences listed in Part 1 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code - loss of vision, hearing, speech, any organ, etc.
When committing a continuing crime, the action or inaction is associated with a subsequent more or less prolonged failure to fulfill the duties imposed on the offender by law under the threat of criminal punishment. This type of crime is characterized by the continuous implementation of a certain criminal act and is committed over a relatively long period of time. Examples of crimes called continuing include unlawful imprisonment (Article 127 of the Criminal Code), malicious evasion of payment of funds for the maintenance of children or disabled parents (Article 157 of the Criminal Code), evasion of repayment of accounts payable (Article 177 of the Criminal Code), unauthorized abandonment unit or place of service (Article 337 of the Criminal Code), etc.
A continuing crime begins and forms the complete corpus delicti of a specific crime either from the moment of commission of the first criminal act (for example, when leaving a unit or place of service without permission (Article 337 of the Criminal Code) - from the moment of leaving the territory or place of service without the legal permission of the commander (chief) of the territory or place of service) , or from an act of criminal inaction (for example, when evading military and alternative civil service (Article 328 of the Criminal Code) - from the moment of failure to appear on a summons at a recruiting station or other designated place without good reason).
A continuing crime ends as a result of either the action of the culprit himself, aimed at stopping the crime (for example, turning himself in), or the occurrence of events that prevent the further commission of the crime (for example, intervention by authorities), or when the obligation itself, the failure of which constituted the content of the continuing crime, has disappeared ( for example, with the death of a child or a disabled parent, the obligation of the perpetrator to pay funds for their maintenance, by a court decision, ceases). A continuing crime, regardless of the duration of its implementation, is considered as one (single) crime.
Continuing crimes consist of a number of identical or identical criminal actions (acts of inaction), have a common goal, are covered by a single intent and generally constitute one crime. In contrast to a continuing crime, a continuing crime consists of the repeated commission of identical (identical) acts, while the criminal activity is considered completed from the moment the last of them was committed.
Continuing crimes include, for example, torture, expressed in causing physical or mental suffering through systematic beatings or other violent actions (Article 117 of the Criminal Code), etc.
The specificity of the objective side of a continuing crime lies in the fact that the committed actions (acts of inaction) are united not only by relatively short periods of time between them, but also by a single method of committing the act, as well as the occurrence of homogeneous consequences. From the subjective side, a continuing crime is characterized by the presence of the same form of guilt, the same motives and a single goal of criminal activity.
In the theory of criminal law, complex individual crimes include crimes characterized by the presence of additional grave consequences and crimes with two forms of guilt . As an example of the first group, Part 4 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code (causing grievous bodily harm resulting in the death of a person through negligence).
As an example, the second is Part 2 of Art. 167 of the Criminal Code (deliberate destruction or damage to property, resulting in the death of a person or other consequences through negligence). According to some authors, this group also includes the crime provided for in Part 3 of Art. 264 of the Criminal Code (violation of traffic rules resulting in the death of a person through negligence).
However, it seems that all these examples can be classified as one group of crimes, complicated by the presence of additional grave consequences. It is these crimes that the legislator classifies as crimes with two forms of guilt (Article 27 of the Criminal Code). This applies to crimes provided for in Part 4 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code (causing grievous harm to health), part 2 of Art. 167 of the Criminal Code (damage and destruction of property), etc.
Thus, the last group of complex individual crimes includes crimes complicated by the presence of additional grave consequences, which implies the simultaneous presence of two forms of guilt.
The articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are designed in such a way that it is assumed that one single crime has been committed. However, in some cases, when a person simultaneously or at different times commits not one, but two or more crimes, a number of criminal legal issues arise related to both the qualification of such crimes and their delimitation from individual complex crimes. These questions require a detailed analysis of the types of plurality, namely:
- repetition (Article 16 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, not valid);
- aggregates;
- relapse.
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What happens in practice?
It is not always possible to make a fair decision in court, even if it can later be challenged. Sometimes they are classified into a degree of greater and more serious punishment. If there is no basis to assume otherwise, then the court is inclined to accept the opinion of the witnesses and parties who will act as plaintiffs. Sometimes in practice it is quite difficult to convince the prosecutor and the court of innocence when it comes to multiple crimes. It is unfair to apply articles under it, since for a single criminal act you can get off with a fine. That is why in a number of cases the position of the plaintiff is taken into account, who cannot or does not want to treat the defendant and the accused favorably.
What to do if isolated crimes are of a more loyal nature, and many judges believe that these are forced crimes in order to commit a crime and receive a minimum sentence? Judges often disagree, but in practice it is quite difficult to force them to understand what only a criminal is right about if he does not consider himself to be one. If justice were logical and ideal, many would be released from prison, while others worthy of punishment would spend most of their lives behind bars.
