The concept of “minor bodily injury” has been replaced by “minor harm to health.” Punishment for this act is provided for in Article 115 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The actions of the violator must, first of all, be intentional. Also, the harm caused to the victim implies in this case a short-term health disorder, which entails loss of ability to work for a period of no more than 3 weeks, or for a longer period, but not more than ten percent of the total ability to work.
Important! If you are dealing with your own battery case, you should remember that:
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For minor bodily injuries, the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for a fine, correctional and compulsory labor, as well as arrest. Hooligan motives, motives of enmity or hatred, and the use of weapons increase the punishment.
How are damage caused determined and recorded?
Remember one important thing - if you want to prove the fact of causing any injuries, be sure to record them. The presence of a conclusion will be mandatory for contacting the police, prosecutor's office and court. In this case, damages need to be recorded only by doctors. It is impossible to independently describe the existing injuries and draw up a medical report, even if you are a certified doctor - the examination must be carried out by a third party.
Important
At the same time, it is not enough to record the damage itself. You will also need to provide other evidence. For example, filming an attack from surveillance cameras, video recorders, etc. Also, do not hesitate to involve witnesses. To do this, you can always contact the police.
Kinds
All possible bodily injuries are divided into three broad categories: mild, moderate, severe. Before defining each, we note an important fact - each injury is unique in its own way, and only a qualified specialist can determine the degree of severity. Moreover, even the same injury can be assessed by two doctors in different categories.
- Lungs. The most common category. These include any minor or short-term damage to health. In practice, they mean bruises, bruises, contusions, etc. Light injuries also include more serious injuries that “lasted” no more than seven days (that is, completely or substantially healed in less than a week);
- Average. The most extensive category, which, in fact, includes everything that is neither minor nor severe harm to health. This category often includes injuries that somehow affected the victim, but did not affect his health as a whole, as well as injuries that affected his general health for a significant period. In practice, bodily injury is almost any injury: fractures, severe burns, stab and cut wounds that do not affect organs, and much more;
- Heavy. Not as extensive as moderate damage, but much more varied. Grave damage includes any damage that causes significant damage to the health and psyche of the victim. Please note that serious bodily injuries most often lead to a deterioration in the victim’s mental state, and therefore, even if the damage was not significant, but affected the victim’s mental balance, the damage can be characterized as severe. In practice, severe damage includes anything that causes permanent consequences for the victim’s health, disability or death: beatings, torture, severe beating, stabbing, cutting or gunshot wounds and much more.
Corpus delicti
The legislation provides for administrative or criminal liability for beatings under Art. 6.1.1 Code of Administrative Offenses and Articles 116, 116.1 and 117 of the Criminal Code. They have a similar composition with some differences in the object of the crime (Article 116.1 of the Criminal Code) and motives (Article 116 of the Criminal Code).
An object
Beatings violate a person’s right to physical integrity, humiliate him as a person, and damage the health and mental state of the victim.
Objective side
“Battery” refers to blows or other acts of a violent nature directed against the victim and causing pain:
- pinching;
- bites;
- hair pulling;
- twisting of limbs;
- pinching or squeezing of a body part;
- flogging.
Number of beats
Strikes or other actions must be performed multiple times (more than twice). Inflicting one blow cannot be considered beating. This violation (in the absence of harm to health) will be classified as hooliganism under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation or insult.
Consequences of the beating
Additionally
, in the case where the beatings did not violate the anatomical integrity of the body tissues, but led to physical pain and ailments, they will also be taken into account in the medical report. The forensic expert will record the victim’s complaints and also indicate that there are no visual signs of damage and the severity of the harm has not been determined.
Beatings can do without visible consequences or leave superficial damage on the body:
- abrasions;
- scratches;
- bruising;
- bruises;
- small wounds.
However, they do not lead to temporary or permanent disability. Although, such consequences may not occur immediately, but over time. In this case, the act will be reclassified as “harm to health” under articles of the Criminal Code - 115, 112 or 111, depending on the severity of the injuries. The article https://lexconsult.online/6615-osobennosti-provedeniya-sudebno-meditsinskoi-ekspertizy-tyazhesti-vreda-zdorovyu discusses the criteria for determining the severity of harm to health.
Subject
Responsibility for battery is borne by an individual aged 16 years or older who was in a sane state at the time of the commission of the crime. Taking into account the changes made to the Criminal Code by Federal Law No. 323 of July 3, 2016, the subject of a crime classified under Art. 116.1 of the Criminal Code, is a close relative of the victim:
- spouse;
- parent (adoptive parent);
- son (daughter), including adopted one;
- sibling;
- grandfather grandmother);
- grandson;
- brother-in-law, matchmaker;
- guardian (trustee);
- person running a joint household.
For amendments to Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Beatings”, see the following video
Subjective side
An unlawful act is committed with direct intent - causing pain to the victim is the conscious goal of the offender. If the damage was caused unintentionally, it is identified as minor harm to health caused by negligence (you can read about unintentional harm to health). This violation is not subject to criminal penalties. However, the victim can file a civil lawsuit against the perpetrator and recover compensation from him for material and moral damage.
The motives for the beating affect his qualifications. Thus, criminal liability for beatings under Art. 116 of the Criminal Code threatens a criminal who has committed an act from:
- Hooligan motives.
- Ideological principles.
- Hatred towards representatives of a certain:
- political group;
- race or nationality;
- religion;
- social group.
If the beating occurred out of personal hatred towards the victim, the violation will be qualified under Art. 6.1.1 Code of Administrative Offences.
Aggravating circumstances
Most often, causing any damage is considered not as a separate crime, but as one of the aggravating circumstances. And sometimes it completely changes the article. Let's look at two examples .
- Extortion . Standard extortion does not involve causing harm to the victim’s health. And the maximum punishment for it is 4 years and a fine of 80,000 rubles. However, if grievous bodily harm was caused during extortion, the prison term can increase to fifteen years, and the fine - up to one million;
- Robbery . According to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, robbery is the open theft of property without causing physical harm. At the same time, Article 161 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Robbery” includes theft, during which minor injuries were caused to health. However, if violence was used during the robbery, resulting in the infliction of medium or grave harm, then the elements of the crime will change, and the robbery will “develop” into a robbery.
These two examples clearly show how inflicting even minor injuries can significantly affect the punishment for the crime committed.
Minor harm to health
This article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, number 115, considers only light and minor injuries that did not lead to too serious consequences. This is a very short article with only two parts.
In the first part of Art. 115 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation deals with the infliction of minor bodily harm without any aggravating circumstances or features. Punishments may include:
- Fine up to 40,000 rubles;
- Compulsory work for 480 hours;
- 1 year of correctional labor;
- Arrest for 4 months.
In the second part of Art. 115 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation deals with causing minor injuries with various aggravating circumstances. Aggravating circumstances include:
- Injury for hooligan purposes;
- Political, religious or other motives;
- Use of any weapon;
The punishment for the second part is much more severe:
- 1 year of correctional labor;
- 2 years of restriction of freedom;
- 2 years of forced labor;
- 6 months of arrest;
- Imprisonment for two years.
Moderate bodily injury
Battery of moderate severity is a serious crime and carries a penalty of imprisonment. To qualify the actions of the batterer, a forensic medical examination of the beatings inflicted is carried out. Her findings confirm the need for treatment of the victim for at least three weeks.
Depending on the situation in which the bodily harm was inflicted, the judge's sentence may be increased (see punishment for beating a person).
For example , if two friends were beaten at the same time. Both were in hospital for 24 days, then the perpetrator may be sentenced to imprisonment for up to 5 years (instead of 3 years, which are provided for in Article 112 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for beating one victim).
The same punishment (up to 5 years) awaits someone who used moderate violence against a child under 14 years of age.
Average harm to health
The legislation of the Russian Federation provides for a separate article responsible for the intentional infliction of injuries of moderate severity. It bears the number 111 and is divided into two parts.
In the first part of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation deals with the process of intentionally inflicting bodily harm of moderate severity without any aggravating circumstances. This is a very serious violation and will be punished accordingly:
- 3 years of restriction of freedom;
- 3 years of forced labor;
- Arrest for 6 months;
- 3 years imprisonment.
The second part of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is much more extensive. She considers the following circumstances:
- There are two or more victims;
- The victim is a minor;
- The harm was caused by a group of people;
- The harm was caused for hooligan reasons;
- The criminal used his official position;
- When causing harm to health, a weapon was used;
- The harm was caused on the basis of religious, national or other hostility.
Info
In any case, the punishment for the crime provided for in the second part of this article is the same for all counts - imprisonment for a term of up to five years.
How to bring the offender to criminal liability?
- The first thing to do is to attest to the bodily injuries that were inflicted . A medical examination can be carried out at the scene of the crime (and the opening of the case), but the victim may be redirected to another department.
- You can also take a referral for inspection in advance at the police station. But even this does not guarantee that the plaintiff will not be redirected to another place for a medical examination.
It is important to be prepared for this because the entire procedure of travel, queues and inspections can take more than one day. NOTE! The injury to health must be certified as quickly as possible, especially in cases where there are visible injuries (bruises, scratches, etc.). This is important for the victim himself. At trial, the degree of harm caused is taken into account. Half-healed wounds, diminished bruises or healed scratches will make less of an impression on the judge. - After the examination, the plaintiff needs to go to the police at the place where the crime was committed and write a statement, attaching documented inspection results. It is better to get a sample in advance - for example, you can download it on the Internet.
This is important because police officers have a lot of people handling these "minor" (compared to other) cases every day. Little time and attention will be given to the victim. If he comes without his sample, then they will simply dictate basic information to him, where something important may be missed. It also happens that the application is completed incorrectly, although it was written under dictation from the police. It's better to play it safe and do most of the work yourself.When describing what happened, pay maximum attention to every little detail that is relevant to the case. Remember that things like using something as a weapon or causing injury to the victim will increase your liability. This also includes an attack on the basis of ideological hostility or any other of those specified in Article 115.
If you have witnesses who can testify in court, this must also be reflected in the application . This detail will increase the chances that the criminal will be punished.
who has reached the age of 16 can be held accountable under this article . If the person who committed the crime is under 16, no punishment will follow. But in this case, it is possible to recover material damage from his parents, and the offender himself will be registered. Mentally incompetent citizens are also exempt from liability.
