Murder committed in a state of passion: elements of the crime, terms

Among all existing crimes, it is the murder of a person that is considered to be the most serious. It can only be mitigated by the court’s recognition of the fact that the offender committed murder in a state of passion. The release of strong emotions that cannot be controlled has a negative impact on the subject and is recognized by the court as a kind of separate type of crime, delimited from related offenses.

Note! If you have any questions, you can chat for free with our lawyer at the bottom of the screen or call the HOTLINE. Free call for all of Russia.

What is affect?

The concept of affect in criminal practice implies a narrowing of a person’s consciousness with subsequent harm to the victim’s health of varying degrees of severity, up to and including murder. It causes complete prostration and loss of connection with one’s actions against the background of sudden strong emotional stress on the psyche, which results in stress, unbearable pain, and overexcitement.

In a situation where this condition manifests itself, the cause that causes it is not any mental illness. According to doctors, it cannot be characterized as one of the criteria for insanity. Its vivid external manifestation gives an understanding of the level of instability of the nervous system at the time of the commission of a crime.

Three degrees of affect:

• Cumulative , provoked by the use of alcohol, drugs or other drugs with a similar effect on the human body;
• Pathological , arising as a result of existing mental illnesses and implies an absolute loss of control over the actions being performed;
• Physiological , manifested as the body’s response to external stimuli, but with maintaining an understanding of the actions being performed.

The described varieties differ from each other in the time interval that separates the moment of exposure to the stimulus and the subsequent response in the opposite direction. On average, its duration is several minutes.

Qualification of the crime

In order for the court to recognize the defendant as having an affective state, irrefutable facts must be provided confirming the commission of an act of deprivation of life due to temporary insanity, which is of great importance in determining the term of punishment. Conviction is possible only if the qualifying criteria are proven. Also, the investigative commission must indicate the reasons why the killer lost control of himself. In the absence of facts, consideration of the case by the court may be postponed until the qualifying criteria are determined.

In addition to the reasons for the crime committed, which were listed above, the following are taken into account:

• how serious was the reason due to which the defendant lost control of himself;
• how long the traumatic effect lasted;
• how often the irritating factor occurred;
• how fast the response was;
• age of the accused (for deprivation of life for this reason they are charged from 16 years of age).

The object of the crime in this type of murder is human life. The objective side is defined as follows: the death of a person was caused under the influence of sudden external factors that had a negative impact on his psyche. According to judicial practice, murders committed due to strong emotional disturbance make up 15% of the total number of solved cases.

What the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation says about murder in a state of passion

The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has Article 107, which describes the state of a killer, called passion. It consists of two parts.

1. The first talks about a murder committed at a moment of great shock, which is provoked by stress. The degree of violence against the perpetrator and the immoral actions of the victim against him are described. In such a situation, the punishment is both imprisonment for a period of up to 3 years and correctional labor for a similar period.
2. The second part of the article describes the murder of two or more persons, also committed in a state of passion. Punishment involves correctional labor for a period of five years or imprisonment for the same period.

Definition of the term

A state of passion is an extremely strong emotional disorder that lasts only a few minutes. In this state, a person’s consciousness and ability to think are suppressed, and the ability to control one’s actions disappears.

Reference! In jurisprudence, affect is described as a sudden emotional outburst. That is, this is a destructive mental state in which a person loses the ability to realize the danger of his actions and is unable to control them.

Part 1 of Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation defines affect as a state of “suddenly arising strong emotional excitement.” In this case, strong emotional arousal manifests itself in sudden, erratic movements, incoherent speech, and shouting. Affect itself is the peak of experience, its critical point. Affective states are characterized as states with partial loss of legal capacity.

Signs of murder in a state of passion

Observing a person, one can note a sudden loss of the ability to think and soberly assess the situation. Movements become active and tense. Speech becomes confused, rises to a scream or unintelligible scream, there is convulsive swallowing of parts of a sentence, and loss of train of thought. At the moment of climax, you can notice a complete loss of self-control.

Every murder committed in a state of passion entails mitigation of responsibility due to the presence of two circumstances during its commission:

• unacceptable immoral or provocative actions of the killed person;
• severe mental stress of the defendant, provoked by the immoral behavior of the victim.

In moments of difficulty, when the court cannot independently determine the degree of psychological trauma of the criminal, an independent comprehensive examination is forcibly ordered. With its help, you can determine the degree of sanity of the offender.

An equally important point is the analysis of the degree of inadequacy of the victim’s actions, which contributed to the defendant’s stressful state. These include, as noted in the legislation, grave insults, regular immoral acts, violence, both physical and moral, continuing for a long time.

Who needs statistics and why?

In 2011, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime conducted its first large-scale study of serious criminal offenses. Until that time, there was no regular monitoring of the number of murders in the world. The data obtained allowed us to get a general idea of ​​crime and understand how safe the society is. An international ranking of countries was formed based on the number of murders per year per 100 thousand people. It has become a kind of assessment of the level of life safety in different states.

Thanks to the data obtained, the UN and WHO were able to develop preventive measures and develop recommendations to reduce this type of crime.

In Russia, recording murders is the sphere of activity of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The department keeps a count of serious and especially serious crimes. Executive authorities can assess the dynamics of violent crimes and the real number of criminal deaths in the country.

Homicide data is of particular interest to the media. The press is the first to inform the public about the level of security in the country.

For sociologists, information about those who commit murders is also valuable because it reflects the level of cruelty in society. And data on those killed is a source of information about people at risk based on gender and age.

Qualification of murders in the SA

Unlawful actions carried out under the influence of this condition have a specific characteristic. Their peculiarity is the fact that they are limited by the time of exposure of the body to an unstable state provoked by stress.

An important sign for qualification is an unexpected, for the criminal himself, a sharply emerging feeling of aggression. It should not have time intervals with the manifestation of the stimulus.

For the court to recognize the presence of passion at the time of committing a crime, the perpetrator must confirm his temporary inability to think soberly by presenting irrefutable evidence. These facts will be critical at sentencing. They, together with the reasons that provoked the loss of control, influence the degree of punishment.

If they are absent, the case is stopped until the qualifying features are clarified. In addition to the listed reasons, additional information that occurred during the commission of the crime is taken into account:

• the number of completed years of the defendant;
• frequency and intensity of irritating situations in communication with the victim;
• duration of toxic effects on the accused;
• the severity of the cause that caused the disturbance in the perception of the situation;
• speed of response.

In addition to the reasons listed, blackmail, abuse, slander, psychological pressure, abuse of power, and public humiliation can cause a person to commit illegal actions.

Causes

One of the determining factors in murder is the events due to which the perpetrator lost control of himself. The causes of loss of self-control and subsequent murder in a state of passion can be:

• serious insults or mocking statements uttered to the victim;
• actions whose purpose is to humiliate a person who is subsequently accused of breaking the law;
• immoral or illegal actions on the part of the victim;
• a long-term psychotraumatic situation provoked by the victim.

In addition, the following may provoke a person to commit illegal actions:

• spreading slander and blackmail;
• abuse of authority;
• arbitrariness;
• outrage against moral values;
• gross violation of interests;
• intentional/unintentional damage or destruction of property, etc.

It should be noted that provoking or unlawful actions of the victim are a mitigating circumstance for the perpetrator when sentencing for murder committed in a state of passion.

What is the difference with murder by negligence or insanity?

At the time of committing a crime in a state of passion, the subject retains a partial ability to evaluate his actions, except in cases of the pathological degree of this state. This is precisely the difference between this type of murder and a crime committed by insane defendants.

Being in a state of inadequate perception of the situation, due to mental illness, the person committing the crime is not aware of the actions being performed and their consequences. Murder by negligence, in contrast to the previous two options, implies a certain non-intentional action, or inaction, as a result of which the death of another person occurred.

Commentary on Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

1. The signs of a privileged group are: a) sudden strong emotional excitement (affect), under the influence of which the murder is carried out; b) illegal or immoral behavior of the victim, as a result of which the perpetrator becomes emotional.

2. The first of these signs refers to the characteristics of the subjective side, the emotional state of the person, and the second - the objective side and the object (the victim). At the same time, both of these signs are in a close cause-and-effect relationship: in itself, the affective state of a person at the time of the murder, regardless of the circumstances of his behavior, cannot lead to the classification of the crime by comment. article. After all, such a state of the perpetrator can arise as a reaction to the lawful behavior of the victim or the lawful or unlawful behavior of third parties, etc. All this, however, does not lead to a significant reduction in the level of public danger of the crime and the person who committed it, but, on the contrary, may indicate an increased danger (when, for example, a murder is carried out, albeit in a state of passion, but as a response to the victim’s execution his public duty).

3. The mitigating circumstance under consideration presupposes a situation in which the murder is a response to the provoking (victim) behavior of the victim and (due to mental laws) is directed at a source that aroused strong emotions in the perpetrator. The guilt of the victim, leading to a certain extent to the loss of self-control by the perpetrator, is the reason that led to the identification of this privileged type of murder in criminal law.

4. The objective side of a murder committed in a state of passion contains an indication of two types of victim behavior (actions or inaction) of the victim as sources of affect in the perpetrator - illegal and immoral. The first of them is revealed directly in the law by giving an approximate list: it refers to violence, bullying, grave insult or other illegal actions (inaction) of the victim.

5. Illegal is understood as objectively unlawful behavior, regardless of whether it is guilty, prohibited by one or another branch of law (civil, family, administrative, labor, etc., including criminal). It is only important that it is in conflict with current legal regulations.

6. Other unlawful acts of the victim may be expressed in extortion, slander, deception or abuse of trust, unfair harassment in the service, persistent evasion of repayment of a large debt, etc. Such actions (inaction) must come from the victim, and not from third parties (including close relatives of the victim) and can, obviously, manifest themselves in relation to both the perpetrator and, in some cases, people close to him.

7. The source of affect as a circumstance that reduces the punishability is recognized not only by illegal behavior (as was the case in Article 104 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of the RSFSR), but also by the immoral behavior of the victim, for example, the fact of adultery.

8. The criminal law also identifies another source of affect, also associated with acts of illegal or immoral behavior of the victim - a long-term psychologically traumatic situation. Such a situation, within the meaning of the law, does not arise instantly, but has already existed at the time of the murder for a certain time: the situation gradually escalates as a result of repeated (systematic) illegal or immoral behavior of the victim, for example, systematic humiliation, beatings, drunkenness, etc. Finally, the last act of behavior becomes the straw that overflows the patience of the guilty person: an explosion of emotions occurs, a crime is committed as a response to the behavior of the victim.

9. In light of this, the peculiarity of the objective side of the crime under analysis lies in the fact that murder is committed only through active behavior - action.

10. The subject of a criminal offense is a sane person who has reached 16 years of age.

11. The subjective side is characterized by direct or indirect and only sudden intent. A mandatory sign of the composition is the affected state of the person at the time of the murder.

12. Physiological affect is defined in the commentary. article as a sudden strong emotional disturbance.

13. Strong emotional excitement is a fleeting emotional state that arises under the influence of external stimuli and takes on the character of a rapidly occurring outbreak. This is an extremely expressed, but short-term emotion, in which during the period of its course a narrowing of consciousness occurs, a person may partially lose the ability to control his behavior. At the same time, he still retains the ability to be aware of what is happening and his behavior, to “pull himself together.” Due to the above, a person’s responsibility for murder is not excluded, as is the case with pathological affect (Article 21), but only its mitigation can occur.

14. Any illegal and immoral behavior of a person may cause emotional disturbance, an emotional reaction from loved ones or other people present. The law recognizes only strong emotional disturbance as having criminal legal significance, moreover, one that arose suddenly, i.e. unexpected for the culprit. The latter (suddenness) is unlikely to always be present in the presence of a long-term psychotraumatic situation: a person can foresee the possibility - in the event of further continuation of such a situation - of a breakdown in his behavior, but up to a certain point he manages to restrain himself, control and guide his behavior. At some point, an explosion of emotions occurs and a crime is committed.

15. Unlike the previous Criminal Code, in the comment. The article differentiates the punishability of this privileged type: Part 2 provides as a qualifying circumstance the murder in a state of passion of two or more persons (see commentary to paragraph “a” of Part 2 of Article 105).

16. Competition may arise between Art. 107 and 105, in particular, in the case of murder by a person in a state of strong emotional excitement of a obviously pregnant woman or in a generally dangerous way. In such cases, within the meaning of the law, murder should not be regarded as committed under qualifying circumstances, i.e. priority is given to art. 107.

17. The acts described in parts 1 and 2 of the comment. articles fall into the category of crimes of medium gravity.

Composition of the crime in the SA

The fact that such a crime has been committed implies the presence of mitigating circumstances. The difficulty lies in the ability to confirm the presence of affect. To determine the corpus delicti, at the time of consideration of cases of such defendants, attention is paid to the following characteristics:

• the life situation of the deceased;
• the circumstances of the defendant's life;
• age and health of the conflicting parties;
• the duration of the negative impact on the defendant;
• the complexity of the situation that contributed to the crime;
• the illegality of the victim’s actions and their seriousness.

This information helps to understand the current situation and see much more deeply the reason that caused the commission of criminal acts.

Characteristics of the crime

Concept

Murder, according to the Criminal Code, is causing the death of another person. At the same time, the criminal understands the danger of his actions and is able to give an account of his actions.

When considering each specific case, the judge takes into account the complex of all circumstances preceding and accompanying the commission of a crime. The identity of the killer, his living conditions, etc. are analyzed.

Attention is also drawn to the presence of factors that aggravate or mitigate guilt.

The criminal law provides a list of general mitigating circumstances (Article 61) and identifies certain privileged circumstances. Murder associated with a state of passion is precisely one of these norms.

It refers to causing death under the influence of strong uncontrollable emotions associated with immoral acts or behavior of the victim.

Important: Affect mitigates punishment because the offender could not fully evaluate and control his actions. The question of insanity is not raised.

Compound

By isolating this crime, which includes a mitigating circumstance, into a separate article, the legislator notes the presence of two interrelated features in its disposition:

• the murder was committed in a state of strong emotional outburst;
• this condition is caused by the actions of the victim.

To hold a person accountable under this article, both of these factors must be present.

Interesting. It doesn’t matter in which direction the victim’s behavior was directed: towards the killer himself, his relatives or strangers.

Expert opinion

Novikov Igor Timofeevich

Legal consultant with 6 years of experience. Specializes in the field of civil law. Law teacher.

Persons whose actions contained spontaneous intent and who were 16 years old at the time of the commission of the criminal act are held accountable under Article 107.

How to prove that the murder was in a state of passion

Judicial practice is full of situations where, after a long period of experiencing aggression and bullying, a person found himself in a stressful situation, which turned out to be the final straw.

After committing unlawful acts, the person was found innocent. How can you prove that the murder was committed in a state of passion?

1. A long period of difficult relationships between people. Present scandals, quarrels, humiliations, insults contribute to the emergence of a depressive state and a threat to life. There are cases when the criminal himself receives serious injuries after a conflict with the victim.
2. Confused attention under stress directly indicates the presence of a state of affect. At this moment, all emotions and aggression are concentrated on only one object - the irritant. This provokes isolation from what is happening and an incorrect interpretation of the situation.
3. Manifestation of confusion and pronunciation, loss of self-control, sense of time and reality.
4. A mandatory factor in the state of excessive stress is loss of strength, loss of energy and tremors of the limbs. Pale skin indicates the outflow of blood from tissues due to vasospasm.
5. Often people who are usually patient, polite and not prone to hysteria are prone to such actions.

To support the information received, attorneys may prepare appropriate documentation to subpoena witnesses who can clarify problematic situations.

Concept and types of state of affect

Types of affect, the mechanism of their occurrence

In order to correctly qualify murder under Art. 107, you need to know the characteristics that must correspond to the mental state of the accused at the time when he committed the criminal act.

In science and practice, three types of affect are distinguished: physiological, pathological, cumulative. Only the first type is taken into account - sudden and violent emotional excitement with a vivid external expression and a decrease in the ability to give an account of actions. It is not deliberate and is caused by an outburst of anger towards the victim.

Important! If the victim behaved immorally towards the accused, but after that the offender had the opportunity to think about what happened and planned the murder, then the act will fall under Art. 105.

Requirements imposed by law on the actions of the victim

The criminal law lists the actions of the victim, which may cause a state of passion in the criminal and, as a result, lead to the qualification of murder under a mitigating article. These include:

• violence (of any kind, including moral);
• bullying;
• serious insults;
• other actions contrary to generally accepted norms of morality and law (short-term or long-term).

Thus, provocations on the part of the victim can be either one-time (blow, humiliation, threat of violence against loved ones, insult to religion, etc.), or repeated, of an escalating nature. But in the second case, the murder must still be spontaneous.

Previously, practice refused to take into account ongoing provocations. The judges believed that the constant repetition of immoral acts was not capable of awakening a sudden violent reaction. But the legislator moved away from this by introducing a corresponding norm.

Qualification

During the consideration of a case of such murders, the main task of the judge is to establish that there really was passion. Usually a psychological analysis of the situation and the personality of the culprit is enough. If there is any doubt, examinations are ordered.

The next point that requires research is the causal relationship between the victim’s actions and the resulting aggression. The following facts are taken into account:

• the nature of the victim’s actions and the strength of their impact on the accused due to his religion, age, nationality, characteristics of upbringing and life;
• duration of illegal actions;
• the time that passed between the provocation and the murder.

The difficulty arises when there is physical violence against the offender by the victim. In the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated September 27, 2012.

No. 19 “On the application by courts of legislation on necessary defense and causing harm when detaining a person who has committed a crime” notes that it is necessary to carefully study all the facts in order to correctly distinguish a murder committed in a state of passion from causing death caused by the need to defend oneself.

The article has one aggravating circumstance - the murder of two or more persons. To apply this clause, it must be established that the actions of all the victims resulted in the offender losing control.

Expert opinion

Novikov Igor Timofeevich

Legal consultant with 6 years of experience. Specializes in the field of civil law. Law teacher.

It’s interesting: if a person killed not only the one who caused the outbreak of aggression, but also strangers, then his act will be classified under several articles.

Examples from judicial practice

Judicial practice includes many situations in which the state of passion manifested itself as a result of both an immediate psychological reaction to a stimulus and a cumulative one. Of the total mass, such cases make up at least 15%.

1. There are common cases when, after the start of a conflict and the emergence of a situation, it is necessary to provide resistance for self-defense (Part 1 of Article 114). With a gradual increase in the level of aggression, permissible limits are exceeded, and the provocateur dies as a result of criminal acts committed against him in a state of passion. Violation in such a situation is determined according to Art. 107. This is explained by the fact that the murder occurred after the occurrence of the corresponding condition and is assessed by the final actions of the offender.
2. While moving around the hostel, citizen M received several blows to the head with a bottle from citizen Ch. After a cut to the head and the appearance of blood, M began to actively resist and, succumbing to panic, beat him until he received injuries incompatible with life. Citizen M was given a certificate by experts stating that his actions were caused by aggression that arose in a state of passion. Based on Article 107, the person who resisted would be given a punishment, but in this situation the verdict is considered to be self-defense as a result of an attack at the moment of a sudden manifestation of a state of passion.
3. As a result of fraudulent actions and the impact on the mental state of the accused's wife, the man killed a fortune teller whom he had approached several years earlier. She demanded money and constantly interfered in the defendant's family affairs. During this period, he was subjected to blackmail and pressure from the deceased. The described case shows a situation of manifestation of a long period of negative impact.
4. During a family quarrel, the younger brother, after beating his mother, was killed by the elder. Death occurred as a result of a knife blow. In this situation, there was a sudden manifestation of a state of passion in the older brother in response to the unacceptable crime of the younger brother. Such a case is considered as immoral behavior that cannot be applied to people.

Problems of distinguishing from similar crimes committed

How to distinguish from an act in excess of necessary defense?

Crimes committed in a state of strong emotional disturbance are characterized by causing harm to the victim in response to his unlawful actions , not for the purpose of defense and, accordingly, not in a state of necessary defense.

Thus, when resolving the dispute about delimiting the elements of these crimes, it is necessary to take into account that a person being in a state of passion does not exclude the possibility of being in a state of necessary defense. Judicial practice has relevant examples.

So, on April 2, 2015, citizen Abaev, with his minor sister, came to visit the Churikovs (their sister and her husband). Churikov was drunk, continued to drink and invited Abaev to join. Abaev did not want to drink and, paying attention to the bruises on his sister’s face and neck, began to find out the reason for their appearance.

Churikova’s husband did not deny the fact of beating his wife and began to obscenely insult her. The fact of assault was present earlier, which caused Abaev’s indignation, since in his opinion, his sister behaved with dignity and did not deserve such treatment.

Churikov was characterized negatively; he had a previous conviction, drank, and caused scandals in the family. When the conversation turned to Abaev’s sister, Churikov pointedly hit her in the face. Abaev tried to stop Churikov, but he began to grin at him, declaring that Abaev, apparently, was cohabiting with his sister, and therefore stood up for her. Then he grabbed Abaev by the jacket, threw him to the floor, and began to beat his head on the floor.

Churikova and her younger sister pulled Churikov away from her brother. Then Churikov attacked Abaev with a kitchen knife. The accused managed to snatch the knife from Churikov’s hands and inflict numerous blows on him in the chest area, one of which hit the heart. Churikov died from his injuries.

The court found that Abaev was defending himself against Churikov’s actions, which were accompanied by violence that was dangerous to Abaev’s life. Churikov committed the attack while drunk, using a bladed weapon, and showed aggression.

According to the examination, Abaev was in a state of passion and could not objectively assess the situation. As follows from the case materials, the end of the attack in these circumstances was not clear to Abaev.

In this case, the court decided to acquit Abaev, which is completely justified.

When considering the factors for delimiting the elements of these crimes, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the main parameter for delimiting is the presence of a motive. If in the case of passion the main desire of the person committing murder is the desire to deal with his enemy, then in the case of necessary defense the main motive is an attempt to protect his life or the life of loved ones.

Attention! If it is necessary to distinguish between crimes, a comprehensive forensic psychological and psychiatric examination is required.

How to differentiate an act with aggravating (qualifying) features?

In judicial practice, there are cases that have both mitigating circumstances (in the form of a state of sudden strong emotional disturbance) and aggravating ones, which make it possible to qualify the crime committed under Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

It is significant that the criminal code mitigates liability for a crime committed in a state of strong emotional distress, not only because the person who committed the crime was in a state of clouded consciousness, but also because a murder of this kind is a response to the unlawful or immoral actions of the victim.

When such a crime is committed, the intent to cause death arises immediately, in response to the provocative behavior of the victim. The cause of murder is the actions of the victim. Accordingly, if there are also qualifying signs in the case, such a murder should be considered under Art. 107 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

In each case, it is necessary to establish what actions covered the intent of the accused. If there are signs that the murder was committed with particular cruelty, for qualification under Art. 103 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, it is necessary that the accused be aware that it is by such actions that he causes special suffering to the victim, and wants to cause this suffering.

The murder of a person who is known to the accused to be in a helpless state, for qualification under Part 2 of Art. 103 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, must also contain the intent of the perpetrator. If such conditions occurred, this eliminates the possibility of a state of passion, which, in turn, leads to the absence of a conflict of mitigating and aggravating circumstances.

Important! The presence of numerous wounds on the victim’s body often indicates the presence of a state of passion, rather than the intent to kill with particular cruelty (of course, if there are other confirming circumstances).

The reader may be interested in the following articles:

• Responsibility for the murder of a newborn child by a mother.
• The line between self-defense and crime.

Punishment for murder in SA

Based on the moral pressure received, the criminal who committed the murder, under Art. 107, depending on the severity, may be punished as follows:

• correctional labor for a period of up to 2 years;
• restriction of freedom up to 3 years;
• forced labor for up to 3 or 5 years;
• imprisonment up to 3 or 5 years.

This measure is considered more loyal than when committing an ordinary murder, when the punishment is set in the form of imprisonment for 15 years.

On establishing the moment of occurrence of passion when qualifying a murder

Currently Art. 107 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is used less frequently by practitioners than 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This is primarily due to the imperfection of the norm itself (Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which contains an excessive number of evaluation categories.

At the same time, there are no explanations from the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the application of this criminal law norm, which determines the relevance of the study.

The very name of the type of examination has not been fully settled: in the legal literature one can more often find the term “examination of affect (or psychological affect, physiological affect, simple affect). In a psychological sense, all these definitions of affect are synonymous and are used to distinguish between the establishment of affect and pathological affect.

Minnikhanova L.I. On establishing the moment of occurrence of affect when qualifying a murder // Young scientist. 2021. No. 13. pp. 191-193. URL https: //moluch.ru/archive/199/49050/ (access date: 05/02/2019).

However, the question of the moment of emergence of affect has not been fully studied.

Often in practice, “a long-term psychotraumatic situation caused by ...” is mentioned, which means the onset of affect as a result of any previous actions, but in some criminal cases we see that the crime was committed after some time, for example, it is often found that the crime was committed after several hours, and, quite often, the next day. The issues of motivation of behavior and guilt in murder committed in a state of passion are still of significant theoretical and practical interest. Victimology, a special science that examines the relationship between criminals and their victims, also needs additional research. Homicide statistics in Russia for 2016 show even lower figures.

If we talk about previous years, Wikipedia provides more complete information about crime in the regions. Homicide statistics by year: Today, the leaders in the number of crimes per capita are Honduras, Venezuela and the US Virgin Islands. The countries of Africa and Latin America are somewhat behind them. Liechtenstein, Monaco, Japan, and Iceland are recognized as the calmest and safest.

According to Professor B.A. Spasennikov, in the materials of judicial practice he studied, there was not a single case of examination of affect in a person previously convicted of hooliganism, theft, or extortion. But attempts at a justified, and more often than not unfounded, search for committing an act in a state of passion were often noted if an intellectual, the wife of an alcoholic, an insulted spouse and other “victims” were in the dock [1]. It should be noted that a study of criminal cases of this category showed that affects have very little to do with attitudes, since affect, more than any other state, is determined by the situation, and not by the attitude.

The commission of a crime is an unexpected event, both for the guilty person and for his relatives and friends and does not fit with his usual behavior.