Causing harm to health through negligence

What is it - causing harm to health through negligence?

Responsibility for a careless criminal act is provided for in Article 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Infliction of grievous harm in general is damage to the health of the injured person. In this case, health is meant not only physical, but also emotional.

As a rule, when harm is caused, the injured person experiences:

injury;
a disease that he had not previously had;
deterioration in general health.

As can be seen from the above list, the degree of harm caused is significant or moderate .

Such harm concerns, first of all, violations of human anatomy and the functions of his body.

If there is slight harm to health, there is no corpus delicti contained in Article 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Important: despite the obvious cruelty of the crime in question, the fact of negligence mitigates the punishment, but such unintentionality still needs to be proven.

Composition and characteristics of the crime

The composition of any crime is a combination of its 4 elements: the object and the objective side, as well as the subject and the subjective side.

And now about each of the elements in order, in relation to Article 118.

The subject of a crime is an individual who has reached the age of 14 and is fully sane. For this crime, a fairly low age limit has been established, since signs of aggressiveness are often observed among teenagers.
The subjective side of the act is the absence of direct intent, and negligence in the form:
- frivolity;

By frivolity, the criminal law understands that the guilty person foresaw that his actions could cause harm to the victim, but arrogantly counted on the fact that, as they say, “everything will work out.”

Negligence as a form of negligence is when a citizen did not foresee that his actions or inactions would lead to serious harm, but should have been careful and foreseen a negative outcome.

The object of the crime is nothing more than the health of the victim, because the harm is caused directly to his body.
Finally, the objective side is usually used to designate the circle of those actions or inactions committed by the culprit that have a direct cause-and-effect relationship with the harm caused.

Difference from other types of damage

It is necessary to distinguish the composition of Article 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on harm due to negligence from the composition of Article 111, which is devoted to the intentional infliction of grievous harm to health. The difference here will be in the main thing - the subjective side of the crime, because in relation to Article 111 we are talking about intent. That is, the culprit of the act not only foresaw its outcome, but also wanted the victim to be harmed and for him to experience negative consequences.

All other elements of these compositions are the same.

If serious harm to health is caused as a result of an accident, the crime will be qualified not under Article 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, but according to a special norm - this is Article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. But it also involves driver negligence.

Statement to the police

As is often the case in private prosecution cases, the complaint was initially filed with the police department. Where the employees, having conducted an official examination of the severity of the harm to health, cheerfully refused, due to the lack of corpus delicti. The motivation was logical, they say crimes of this category relate to private prosecution, so please proceed to the magistrate’s court. But in the final part of the resolution, after the large phrase “decided”, the reason for the refusal was based on clause 2 of Part 1 of Art. 24 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

A criminal case cannot be instituted, and an instituted criminal case is subject to termination on the following grounds: lack of corpus delicti in the act;

Classification of crimes under Art. 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Significant damage to health is caused, and the crime is qualified under Article 118, when as a result of the incident:

the victim loses an organ or has lost the ability to function (vision, hearing, speech);
a severe mental disorder occurs;
pregnancy is terminated artificially or naturally (at any stage);
the face becomes disfigured and cannot be restored;
drug addiction occurs;
loss of ability to work (completely or by one third);
the citizen is dying.

Statistics

Unfortunately, there are no reliable official statistics on this type of crime. And all because serious harm to health due to negligence is a rather hidden crime. And a considerable number of citizens simply do not turn to law enforcement agencies to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Or it happens that the harm caused to the victim is not regarded as grave or moderate , and therefore such cases are written off as administrative or civil.

Termination of criminal proceedings and prosecution in court

True, I never had time to declare it. At the beginning of the trial, the judge asked the parties if they were ready to end the case with reconciliation. To which we refused, in addition I said that in general in the case there is an unreversed decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case, and this process, in principle, is subject to termination.

Then the court, on its own initiative, raised the issue of terminating the criminal proceedings. Naturally, we did not object; for us it was not fundamentally important on whose initiative the criminal case would be terminated. I was quite happy with the option that the court “showed vigilance” and discovered it itself.

For the applicant and his lawyer, it was a shock, because they personally attached the ill-fated decision to refuse as an attachment to the application.

As practice shows, everyone initially goes to the police under Article 115 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. And only then, with a refusal, are they sent to the magistrate’s court. And magistrates' courts, for the most part, sometimes make unlawful verdicts, imposing punishment when the case should have been dismissed altogether.

What are the responsibilities?

Responsibility, or the disposition of the norm, can be found directly in the text of Article 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation . A judge, when passing a sentence in a criminal case, may choose one of the following types of punishment for the cause of harm (Part 1).

Monetary punishment:
- a fine of up to 80 thousand rubles;
Execution of work:
correctional – up to 2 years.
Deprivation of liberty:
arrest for up to six months.
In addition, in part two, for a special subject of a crime - a citizen performing his professional duties, More severe penalties have been established for a similar crime:
forced labor for a period of up to 1 year, while a citizen may additionally lose the right to occupy certain positions or conduct certain activities for a period of up to 3 years;
imprisonment for 1 year also with or without the additional punishment specified above.

Defense of a lawyer in court

Thus, the event indicated by the victim has already been verified and a procedural decision has been made. The issue of bringing my client to criminal liability cannot be considered again until the decision of the inquiry officer is cancelled.

Clause 5, Part 1, Art. tells us this directly. 27 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation:

Criminal prosecution against a suspect or accused is terminated on the following grounds:
the presence in relation to the suspect or accused of an unrescinded resolution of the body of inquiry, investigator or prosecutor to terminate the criminal case on the same charge or to refuse to initiate a criminal case;

A corresponding petition to terminate the criminal prosecution was prepared.

What to do to punish?

To resolve such an unpleasant situation fairly and punish the guilty person, the following actions must be taken.

The victim should immediately seek first aid so that health workers can alleviate his serious physical condition.
Then it is necessary to involve law enforcement agencies, write a statement against the culprit and demand that he be prosecuted under Article 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
To prove the fact of causing serious or moderate harm, an examination in a hospital will not be enough. To establish real significant damage, a forensic medical examination is needed. It will be carried out with the victim after a criminal case has been opened, by order of the investigator or by a court ruling.
According to the rules for conducting a forensic medical examination, which are established officially and for all state expert institutions, the victim will be examined by an expert.
Based on the results of a medical examination of the harm caused, an “Expert Conclusion” will be drawn up - the main evidence of damage to health .
In parallel with the consideration of the criminal case, the victim should file a civil claim for compensation for damages and moral damages within the framework of the criminal case.
Receipts confirming payment for hospital treatment, medications, etc. are suitable as evidence.
The claim must be filed before the court verdict.

As for the amount of moral damage, you can demand any amount (even a very large one), because the court will in any case reduce it to a reasonable amount.

Types of mild injuries

In practice, forensic experts distinguish the following types of mild injuries:

abrasions;
significant bruises of the limbs;
bruises of the soft tissues of the face;
brain concussion;
minor bodily injuries;
head bruises.

Each examination is carried out on an individual basis. The diagnosis is made based on personal characteristics and a general examination of the victim.

What are the differences between grievous harm?

The degree of harm caused is usually determined by experts who are brought in during the investigation of the crime. All of them are guided by two initial options in the matter of establishing and dividing the nature of gravity:

At the time of infliction, the harm is considered grave, since it represented a direct danger to human health and life. However, the consequences of causing it may be completely insignificant. For example, the victim could have suffered neck injuries with a bat, but ended up with a slight dislocation even without displacement. That is, surgical intervention is not necessary, and the victim himself recovered from his injuries fairly quickly. Luck, you say? Yes, definitely. However, such harm will still be considered serious, because at that time it posed a serious threat to life;
When the damage to health was caused, it was not critical, but in the future it caused serious consequences. Here, as an example, we can use a case where a driver carelessly hit a pedestrian. In most cases, victims simply refuse medical care, because they feel fine. But damage to internal organs may appear after a couple of days, when their work is disrupted or one of the organs ceases to perform its functions completely. Such situations can end fatally, because urgent hospitalization is carried out when a person is difficult to save. And, most likely, it’s just too late.

Beyond this division, there are distinctive features of severe harm. There are not many of them, but they are a general description of all possible cases. Harm that can cause :

Loss of hearing, vision or loss of an organ (including loss of function);
Mental disorder or addiction as determined by doctors. The latter may include drug addiction or substance abuse;
Loss of any limbs;
Loss of ability to work. It is worth clarifying that its loss should exceed one third of the total value. During the trial of a specific case, this percentage is calculated by an expert. However, in most cases this point is quite obvious. For example, in the case of permanent loss of a leg, the ability to work will be lost by more than one third;
Termination of pregnancy. That is, as a result of the harm caused, a miscarriage occurs or the child dies in the womb.

Info

Situations in which this level of damage to health could be caused can be very different. Each incident is considered individually, because domestic fights cannot be compared with clashes based on racial or other hatred. And again, whether the harm was caused intentionally or by accident - this also needs to be clarified.

What damage is considered unintentional?

According to criminal theory, in order to hold a person legally liable, it is necessary to prove the presence of four mandatory elements. This:

The subject is the person who committed the crime. Each norm of the Criminal Code has its own requirements for guilty citizens, which are limited by age. Additionally, it is stated that only physically sane persons can be brought to justice.
An object is a group of social relations that are affected by a violation. These could be property rights, human life and health, and social safety.
The objective side is a set of actions/inactions that led to negative consequences.
The subjective side is a person’s attitude towards his crime. So-called intent, which can be direct and indirect. Moreover, one can be brought to justice if a crime is committed unintentionally (frivolously, carelessly).

Harm to humans is usually understood as harm to the human body and organism through mechanical action. Such illegal acts will be recognized as unintentional if the offender did not want illegal consequences to occur, but understood that such could occur (he frivolously hoped that everything would work out).

Liability for unintentional injury to health will be assigned based on the severity of the consequences for the person. Establishing the severity of harm is the responsibility of a forensic medical expert. In total, there are three degrees of physical harm to a person. These include:

Minor harm - minor damage, which is accompanied by minor visible signs (bruises, scratches, abrasions), as well as pain. Such damage does not entail loss of legal capacity and does not require hospital treatment. Injuries are characterized by complete resolution of symptoms within one week.
Damage of moderate severity will be recognized if the injuries caused require hospital treatment, but guarantee the person’s full recovery. It is also necessary to confirm that at the time the wound was inflicted there was no threat to human life. This category will include dislocations, fractures, and concussions.
Complete dysfunction of individual organs and systems, the presence of irreversible disorders, as well as causing harm that poses a threat to human life will be regarded as grave harm.

Summary

Serious harm to health implies serious injuries due to which a person has lost more than ⅓ of their ability to work. This can be expressed in the loss of an organ, limb, termination of pregnancy, etc.

The offender's actions may be intentional or unintentional. If the offender did not want to harm another person, his actions fall under Art. 118 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The punishment is relatively mild and does not involve actual imprisonment.

If the victim has died, another norm is used - Part 4 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to it, the sanctions are stricter - up to 15 years in prison.

Mitigating and aggravating circumstances

After establishing the circumstances of the case, the investigator transfers the finished materials to the prosecutor, who prepares the paperwork for submission to the court. In his covering letter, the prosecutor indicates the desired punishment, but only within the framework of the criminal article. Next, the court decides whether the chosen preventive measure is appropriate and can change the punishment at its discretion.

The severity of the sanction will be influenced by accompanying aggravating or mitigating circumstances . Mitigating circumstances will include the following:

voluntary compensation for harm caused;
age of the offender (the court is more loyal to minors);
commission of an offense due to independent circumstances;
pregnancy of the criminal;
the offender has young children, that is, those who have not reached the age of 14;
provision of medical care;
service addiction.

The worsening of the punishment will be influenced by aggravating circumstances, which are determined individually for each situation . As a general rule, this category of characteristics will include the following:

committing an offense while under the influence of alcohol/drugs/psychotropic intoxication;
causing harm by a group of persons by prior conspiracy;
causing harm for hooligan reasons;
the victim is singled out due to any kind of discrimination;
causing particularly grave consequences;
the victim is a pensioner, a minor, a pregnant woman, that is, a person who could not protect himself from an unlawful attack;
committed by an official in the performance of official duties.

The analysis of mitigating and aggravating circumstances is the responsibility of the chief judge. But during the pre-trial investigation, the inquiry officer/investigator is obliged to verify such facts and indicate them in the charge.

Intent in committing this crime

The main feature that makes causing harm a crime is the intent of the offender:

direct - when the perpetrator directly wanted harm to be caused;
indirect - when the perpetrator may not have specifically sought to cause harm to the health of the victim, but could and was obliged to realize that this harm would be caused.

Intent is especially emphasized because causing minor harm to health is not subject to criminal punishment. In this case, the victim can seek compensation for damage only through civil proceedings.