Types of qualification of crimes.
There are two types of classification of crimes: legal (official) and doctrinal (unofficial). Legal qualification is a criminal law CP carried out in a specific criminal case and reflected in the relevant procedural documents by persons specifically authorized by the state. Thus, the following features are characteristic of legal qualification: В-1х, It is carried out in a specific criminal case В-2х, It has the right to be carried out by specially authorized persons - interrogators, investigators, prosecutors and judges. In the event that a procedural document in a case that refers to the CP is issued by a person who has ceased to hold one of these positions, then this will no longer be an official qualification. For example, there was an order to dismiss an investigator from the prosecutor's office from his position. While the dismissal documents are received by the district prosecutor's office, the former investigator makes a decision to bring the person as an accused and brings charges. Such actions have no legal force and the information given in the decision to bring the CP as an accused cannot be called legal. At the same time, a legal CP entails legally significant consequences: for example, a lot depends on the court’s classification of what a citizen has done - the measure of punishment, the type of correctional institution, the terms for expunging a criminal record, and other consequences. Thirdly, the Legal Code is reflected in procedural documents: during the investigation and inquiry - this is a resolution to initiate a criminal case, a resolution to charge a person as an accused, an indictment; in the court of first instance - a decision to schedule the case for hearing, a verdict; in the appellate and cassation instances - the rulings they make, which assess the validity of the CP given in the verdict; in the supervisory authority - a resolution that assesses the validity of the CP given in the verdict and rulings of the appellate and cassation instances (as well as in the decisions of lower supervisory authorities). The importance of legal CP lies in the correct resolution of criminal cases. Doctrinal (unofficial) CP refers to the legal assessment of a criminal act given by citizens (researchers, students, etc.), as well as individuals participating in the investigation and trial of a specific criminal case. This can take place in educational, scientific literature, lectures, seminars, etc.
Doctrinal CP is divided into two subtypes:
The first subtype is a qualification that is given by all persons who are not participants in the preliminary investigation or judicial proceedings.
This, in particular, includes scientific developments by scientists on the qualifications of various categories of criminal cases. This includes students solving problems in criminal law seminars. This type of qualification is of great importance because it contributes to the training of qualified specialists for courts and law enforcement agencies, and on the other hand, it influences the improvement of legislation and judicial practice. Second subspecies. This includes those cases when, when considering a criminal case, such participants in the trial as the state prosecutor, defendant, lawyer, victim, representatives of the defendant and the victim express their position on the qualification of the actions of the defendant (convict). But their position on the CP will not be a legal qualification, since it does not directly entail legal consequences for the person who committed the crime. At the same time, in contrast to the first subtype of doctrinal qualification, the second subtype takes place in a specific criminal case and is reflected in the document in the manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure. At the same time, the opinion of the named participants in the process about the Code of Practice may be taken into account by the court when considering the case, and in some cases may be a reason for a higher court to change the Code of Practice given by a lower court. In particular, in the debate on a criminal case, they have the right to express their position on the qualification of the actions of the defendant. They have the right to do the same in a cassation appeal if they do not agree with the CP given by the court in the verdict. These complaints will entail consideration of the case in the cassation instance, which may change the CP given by the court of the first instance in the verdict. Thus, this subtype of qualification also contributes to the correct resolution of criminal cases. The issue of resolutions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which contain recommendations on the qualification of certain crimes, requires separate consideration. On the one hand, these decisions are adopted by judges, members of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the right to adopt them is provided for by the Federal Law of December 31, 1996 “On the Judicial System in the Russian Federation.” At the same time, these decisions are not adopted in connection with the consideration of a specific criminal case and not in the manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. By CP we mean qualification within the framework of a specific criminal case and in the manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. How to call these decisions of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - legal qualification, doctrinal qualification? Or differently. Professor L.D. Gauchman suggests calling this a semi-official qualification. The proposal is not a successful one, since we are talking about the highest judicial body of the state, and all its decisions are strictly official in nature. Apparently, after all, we are talking about a special procedure for interpreting the current legislation. This is supported by the fact that the Resolutions of the Plenum do not consider specific cases. Don’t know how to solve or complete a coursework or dissertation? Order a solution
Types of corpus delicti and their meaning in criminal law
In the science of criminal law, elements of crime are usually classified on several different grounds. First of all, depending on the degree of public danger, the same type of crime is divided into basic, qualified and privileged. As is known, the degree of public danger of an act is reflected in the sanctions of various parts of the same article of the criminal code. However, not all crimes of the same type fall under the above classification. Sometimes the law stipulates only the basic and qualified compositions. As a rule, the legislator resorts to such a construction in relation to crimes characterized by an increased public danger: murder (Articles 105 - 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); robbery (Article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); banditry (Article 209 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); receiving a bribe (Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), etc.
The basic composition is the composition of a particular crime without aggravating or mitigating circumstances. In the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation it is expressed, as a rule, in the form of a part of an article (Part 1 of Art. 105, 158, etc.). Qualified is the elements of a specific crime with aggravating circumstances (qualifying features) contained in the parts of the articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation following the description of the main elements (Part 2 of Art. 105, 158, etc.). Among qualified compounds, there are also specially qualified ones, which characterize the increased severity of the act, entailing the most severe punishment (parts 3, 4 of Art. 158, 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Qualified aggravating circumstances can be signs of the object or objective side or signs of the subject and subjective side of the crime.
A privileged composition is a composition in the presence of mitigating circumstances (Articles 107, 108 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The presence of mitigating circumstances determines the imposition of a less severe punishment compared to the sanction of the article providing for the responsibility of the main composition. In the case of competition of norms, i.e., the simultaneous presence in the crime of signs of both qualified and privileged compositions, preference is given to the latter. So, for example, if a murder with particular cruelty (clause “d” of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) was committed in a state of passion (Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), then it must be qualified under Art. 107 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Based on their structure, crimes are classified into simple and complex. A simple composition contains a description of the characteristics of one specific act, since a norm with the characteristics of a specific composition has as its task the protection of a certain social relationship. For example, the norm of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation sets itself the task of protecting property from theft. At the same time, theft has one object of crime - the right of ownership. Some criminal law norms are aimed at simultaneously protecting several objects from criminal attacks. The elements of such crimes encroach on several objects at once; in criminal law they are called complex elements. These include, for example, robbery (Article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which simultaneously encroaches on both property and personality and thus has two objects. Complex offenses also include those described in articles that provide for crimes with two forms of guilt, for example, Part 4 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
From the point of view of the peculiarities of the legislative structure, all elements of crimes are divided into formal and material. They have important practical significance for establishing the moment of completion of a particular crime. The objective side of the formal offenses includes only signs characterizing the action (inaction), and the crime is considered completed at the moment of their commission. The consequences of the act lie outside the scope of the crime and are taken into account only when assigning punishment. Formal offenses, for example, include slander (Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The design of material compositions is, along with action (inaction), the onset of criminal consequences. Such offenses include, for example, murder (Articles 105 - 108 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), theft (Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), etc. The absence of consequences in these offenses indicates the incompleteness of the act and may indicate an attempted crime. Certain elements in the current criminal code are formulated as formal and material. So, for example, in Part 1 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for liability for hooliganism, the elements of hooliganism are formulated in the form of a formal and material one. In cases where hooliganism is accompanied by the use of violence against the victim or is associated with the destruction or damage of someone else's property, the material elements of the crime are evident. When hooliganism is accompanied by the threat of violence against the victim, then there is a formal corpus delicti. Whether a particular corpus delicti is formal or material must be judged based on the design of the main corpus delicti.
In criminal law, in addition to the formal and material elements of a crime, it is customary to distinguish a truncated element.
With truncated offenses, the moment of completion of the crime is transferred to the stage of preparation, for example, banditry (Article 209 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), or to the stage of attempt, for example, robbery (Article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Truncated ones differ from formal offenses in that the direct intent of the perpetrator covers not only the actions that constitute the offense, but also their result, which is outside the scope of this offense.
The significance of the corpus delicti lies, firstly, in the fact that the corpus delicti is the basis of criminal liability, secondly, that it is used to determine the type and amount of punishment for a specific crime and, thirdly, that it serves to determine the possibility of exemption from criminal liability and punishments.
The relationship between the concepts of “crime” and “corpus delicti”
The question of the relationship between the concepts of “crime” and “corpus delicti” is important. “The confusion of the concepts of crime and corpus delicti, as well as the attempt to artificially expand the doctrine of corpus delicti at the expense of the doctrine of crime, equally harms both the study of the problems of crime and the analysis of the concept of corpus delicti and its enormous role as the basis of criminal liability”50. Clarifying the issue of the relationship between the concepts of “crime” and “corpus delicti” is important for the activities of law enforcement agencies. The role of the crime is that in order to bring a person to criminal responsibility, it is necessary that the signs of the committed act be in strict accordance with the signs described in the articles of the Special Part of the criminal legislation.
The main content of each specific crime consists of objective and subjective characteristics established in the criminal law, the totality of which allows us to consider this act as a crime. So, for example, the crime of theft as an encroachment on property (Part 1 of Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) is a combination of the following objective signs: 1) secret, 2) theft, 3) of someone else’s property, 4) committed intentionally, 5) by a person having reached the age of fourteen, 6) sane. The presence of all these signs indicates that a socially dangerous unlawful act has been committed, provided for in Part 1 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
In a specific crime, there are various signs: the situation, the time and place of the crime, the personality characteristics of the criminal. A specific single crime is determined by individual characteristics, the establishment of which has important criminal legal, criminal procedural and criminological significance, but they do not affect the qualification of crimes, as well as the decision on the issue of bringing a person to criminal responsibility. These circumstances, which are reflected in the concept of a specific criminal legal significance, do not always affect the qualification of the offense, since they lie outside the scope of the concept of a specific crime. These circumstances may be taken into account when individualizing and assigning punishment. Let's explain this with examples. Ivanov and Petrov each separately committed murder, and Ivanov committed the murder of a disabled person, that is, a person who was known to the perpetrator to be in a helpless state, and therefore his act should be qualified as committed under aggravating circumstances (clause “c” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and Petrov’s actions – without aggravating circumstances (Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Or another example: the same Ivanov and Petrov each separately committed theft of someone else’s property (Part 1 of Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). From the point of view of the specific elements of theft, their actions are no different from each other. However, Petrov committed the theft, taking advantage of the victim’s helpless state. According to paragraph 3 of Art. 63 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the helpless state of the victim is an aggravating circumstance. Therefore, a more severe punishment may be applied to Petrov than to Ivanov. The helpless state of the victim is a sign of a specific crime committed by Petrov, but is not a sign of a specific crime under Part 1 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Consequently, the question of distinguishing between the concepts of a specific crime and a specific crime is of great practical importance. A specific crime is a broader concept than the concept of a specific crime, since it includes both criminal law and other characteristics. At the same time, the concept of a specific crime is an integral part of the concept of a specific (individual) crime.
The concept of a crime, as a set of certain objective and subjective characteristics, makes it possible to classify this or that act as a specific crime and correctly qualify it, leaving outside the scope of qualification those elements of a crime that do not have criminal legal significance.
