Motive and purpose of the crime. The subjective side of the crime

Motive and purpose of the crime

The subjective side of a crime is, as is known, the mental attitude of a person to the act he commits and its consequences. All signs of the subjective side (guilt, motive and purpose of the crime) collectively characterize the internal process that occurs in the psyche of the person who committed the crime and reflects the connection between the consciousness and will of the person with the act he committed.

A correct assessment of any behavior, including criminal behavior, is impossible without taking into account its motives and goals. It is no coincidence that criminal procedural legislation (Article 117 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Kazakhstan) requires proof of the motives for a crime among the circumstances included in the subject of proof. The Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the resolution “On the application by courts of legislation regulating liability for attacks on the life and health of citizens” draws the attention of the courts to the fact that when considering cases of premeditated murders, the motives and goals of the crime, along with other circumstances of the case, must be especially established.

Motive and purpose are mental phenomena that, together with guilt, form the subjective side of the crime.

Psychology has studied in sufficient detail the internal content of the motive and purpose that prompts a person to perform a certain action. At the heart of behavior is a need - a need for something. Needs mean the desire for those conditions without which it is impossible to maintain one’s normal and mental state.

According to T.D. Martsinkovskaya, a motive is an incentive to commit a behavioral act, generated by a system of human needs and, to varying degrees, either conscious or unconscious to him. Needs accumulate energy, and motives encourage action, directing certainty towards a specific goal (1, p. 259).

In the psychological literature, in contrast to this definition, there is another point of view, the author of which argues that a motive is a conscious reason, meaning, the need to perform a certain action, a factor in the self-determination of behavior (2, p. 493).

Despite some differences in the definition of motive, the main meaning is that motive is an internal force that motivates a person to activity, to a specific choice, decision and action, characterizes what this is done for (3, p. 660).

The dictionary of basic legal terms and concepts defines the motive of a crime as the immediate internal motivating cause of an individual’s criminal act (for example, jealousy, revenge, self-interest), which causes his activity, directs and stimulates illegal actions or inaction (4, p. 64).

The goal of a crime is a mental model of the future result that a person strives to achieve when committing a crime. Motive and purpose are closely related. As a rule, the purpose of a crime arises on the basis of a criminal motive and forms the basis on which the intellectual and volitional activity of the subject is formed. The goal as a conscious desire for satisfaction arises from a need, appears on the basis of a criminal motive. Together, these elements of the subjective side form the intellectual and volitional activity of a person when committing a crime.

We have to agree with L.D. Stolyarenko, that the motives and goals of behavior may not coincide: the same goal can be set for oneself, guided by different motives. The goal shows what a person strives for, and the motive shows why he strives for it. The motif has a complex internal structure:

It arises with the emergence of a need for something, accompanied by emotional anxiety and dissatisfaction;
Awareness of the motive is multi-stage: first it becomes clear what is the cause of emotional displeasure, what is necessary for a person to exist at the moment; then an object is specified that meets this need and can satisfy it (a desire is formed); then it becomes clear how, with the help of what actions it is possible to achieve the desired;
The energy component of the motive is realized in real actions (5, p. 427).

In the legal literature, the subject of debate is the question of motives and goals in intentional and careless crimes.

The socially dangerous consequences of a crime are covered by motives and goals only in intentional crimes. In the case of causing a socially dangerous consequence through negligence, the motives and goals of a person’s behavior do not cover the consequences. Therefore, in relation to crimes committed through negligence, one cannot talk about criminal motives and goals, and the legislator does not include these signs in the elements of careless crimes (6, p. 183).

The significance and validity of the question of the presence or absence of a motive in intentional and careless crimes is explained by the fact that, despite the form of guilt, the different combination of intellectual and volitional elements, careless crimes are also an act of will, in the commission of which a person foresees the occurrence of socially dangerous consequences or does not foresee socially dangerous consequences, although he could and should have foreseen them.

A reckless crime is also caused by certain motives and motives. However, unlike an intentional crime, in a reckless crime, the motive does not refer to the consequences, but to the action or inaction. In careless acts, the motive is not a necessary or qualifying feature of the crime, therefore it does not affect the qualification of the act, but is taken into account by the court when assigning punishment (7, p. 85).

When considering the question of the presence of motives in careless crimes, some authors distinguish between “motives of behavior” and “motives for a crime.”

So, according to I.T. Filanovsky, motives are characteristic of all crimes committed with direct intent; their presence is also visible when committing actions (inactions) with indirect intent. We can talk about motives even in careless crimes, but these are the motives of socially dangerous behavior that led to a criminal result, and not the motives of a pre-planned, calculated crime (8, pp. 51-53).

This point of view can be justified by the fact that the motives for crime and the motives for behavior differ from each other. If the motives of a crime say why the criminal committed this or that act that gave rise to certain harmful consequences, then the motives of behavior tell why, for what reasons the person acted in such a way that his behavior gave rise to socially dangerous consequences, the occurrence of which he did not want. One cannot but agree that the significance of the motive for a crime and the motive for behavior for criminal liability is very different. The motive for a crime can be a mandatory or qualifying feature. The motive of behavior helps to understand the reason for a person’s unlawful actions, characterizes the personality of the offender and can be taken into account when assigning punishment.

For the correct classification of crimes, the classification of motives is of great importance. This issue has received sufficient attention in the scientific literature.

In the history of criminal law, many attempts have been made to make such a classification. Back in 1867, at a congress in Florence, a fourteen-member gradation of crime motives was established. In pre-revolutionary Russian literature M.P. Chubinsky divided motives into two groups:

sublime or generally worthy of attention;
vile or reprehensible.

Agreeing with the classification proposed by I.T. Filanovsky, motives can be divided into two main types: motives for crime and motives for behavior (the latter underlie the commission of careless crimes).

The classification of motives should be based on the nature and degree of their social danger, manifested in the commission of intentional crimes. In accordance with this, the motives for crimes can be divided into the following types:

misanthropic,
selfish or base
personal (jealousy, envy, careerism, etc.).

The first type must include the motives for which crimes are committed against the peace and security of mankind. Other motives can appear when committing any intentional crimes (9, p. 203).

B.V. Zdravomyslov believes that the most practically useful classification is one based on a moral and legal assessment of motives and goals. From this point of view, all motives and goals of crimes can be divided into two groups: 1) vile and 2) devoid of vile content. The base ones include those motives and goals with which the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan associates increased criminal liability. Such motives include: selfish, hooligan, national, racial, religious hatred or enmity or blood feud, etc. Low goals include: the goal of facilitating or hiding another crime, the goal of using the organs or tissues of the victim, the goal of involving a minor in the commission of a crime or other antisocial actions, etc. Motives and goals with which the law does not associate increased criminal liability relate to motives that do not have base content: jealousy, revenge, careerism, personal hostility. In addition to these two groups of motives and goals, some scientists also identify a group of motives and goals of a socially useful nature: the motive of compassion for the victim, the goal of suppressing a crime or detaining the person who committed the crime (6, pp. 184-185). The presence of socially useful motives and goals in a crime raises doubts, since motives and goals are always antisocial, since they indicate a desire or conscious assumption of socially dangerous consequences. They contradict the norms of morality and law, the rights and freedoms of citizens. Although, under certain circumstances, they may be taken into account when assigning punishment (committing a crime motivated by compassion for the victim).

In addition, the legal literature offers the following classification of motives for crimes:

Motives of a political nature resulting from a hostile attitude towards our state, its sovereignty or territorial integrity. Foreign intelligence agents, as well as persons hostile to our state, are guided by these motives;
Base motives, which are various forms of manifestation of selfishness. For example, self-interest, thirst for profit, acquisitiveness, jealousy. These include manifestations of such base human qualities as careerism, revenge, anger, hatred, cowardice, cowardice, the desire to avoid responsibility, etc.;
Motives that are not political or base in nature. These include: committing a crime due to a combination of difficult personal or family circumstances, financial, official or other dependence, under the influence of threats, coercion or strong emotional disturbance caused by the unlawful actions of the victim, while protecting the individual, public or state interests, although exceeding the limits necessary defense, etc. This group of motives is sometimes indicated in the law as mandatory features of specific crimes, and is also taken into account when assigning punishment as a mitigating circumstance (7, pp. 84-85).

Various classifications of motives for a crime make it possible to reveal the legal nature of the subjective side of the crime and are the basis for the correct classification of crimes.

The motive and purpose of the crime are optional signs of the subjective side of the crime, that is, they do not have criminal legal significance in all elements of the crime. At the same time, if the motive and purpose are indicated in the disposition of the criminal law norm, then they become constructive features of the crime and acquire the character of mandatory features.

For example, as part of a crime

“Robbery” (Article 179 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan) the purpose - theft of someone else’s property is a mandatory element of the crime, as it is indicated by the legislator in the disposition of the norm. The absence of this particular goal completely excludes the elements of robbery and, under certain conditions, the actions of the perpetrator can be seen as crimes against the person, hooliganism, etc.

In the main element of the crime “ Disclosure of the secret of adoption ” (adoption)”, provided for in Article 135 Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the motive - selfish or other base motives - is a constructive feature of the crime and, together with intentional guilt, form the subjective side of the crime. The culprit, knowing about the adoption that took place, informs other persons about it and wants to make this fact known to strangers against the will of the adoptive parent. The motives for committing this crime are: the desire to receive rewards, revenge, envy and other base motives.

Motive and purpose may have different criminal legal significance depending on how important the legislator considers them in a particular crime (6, p. 185).

If the motive is not a mandatory element of the crime, then it does not affect the qualification of the crime. For example, slander (Article 129 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan), insult (Article 130 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan) are recognized as crimes, regardless of the motive of the perpetrator.

In Art. 96 part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, murder is revealed as the unlawful intentional causing of death to another person. In this crime, the motive and purpose do not have criminal legal significance. It could be revenge, envy, hostility

intimate relationship.

Motive and purpose can change qualifications, i.e. serve as signs with the help of which the corpus delicti of the same crime with aggravating circumstances is formed. For example, criminal liability for murder for hooligan motives is provided for under Art. 96 part 2 paragraph “i” of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The presence of hooligan motives transforms the main element of murder (Article 96, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan) into a qualified one (Article 96, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan).

An analysis of judicial practice shows that the investigation and the court, when classifying a murder for hooligan motives, make mainly three types of mistakes: a) they mix hooligan motives with personal hostile relationships, and therefore overestimate or underestimate the social danger of the criminal’s actions; b) consider so-called motiveless murders hooliganism; c) are classified as hooligan murders committed in a quarrel, fight, or while intoxicated (9, p. 63).

The Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the resolution “On the application by courts of legislation regulating liability for attacks on the life and health of citizens” clarifies to the courts that it is necessary to distinguish between murder for hooligan motives and murder committed on the basis of personal hostility, in a quarrel or fight. According to Article 96, part 2, paragraph “i” of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, it is necessary to qualify murder committed on the basis of obvious disrespect for society, a gross violation of moral standards, when the behavior of the perpetrator is an open challenge to public order and is caused by the desire to oppose himself to others, to show his a feeling of superiority or disdain towards them. Often it is committed without a reason or using an insignificant reason as a pretext for murder.

Thus, the motive of the crime is the basis for distinguishing related elements of the crime.

In the main elements of the crime “Kidnapping” (Article 124 Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan), the motive and purpose can be different, for example, revenge, personal hostility, elimination of a competitor in business. hooligan motives and others. But if the crime is committed for mercenary reasons, then the offense of kidnapping becomes qualified, and the perpetrator is subject to criminal liability under Article 125, Part 2, Clause “h” of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. This may manifest itself in the desire to obtain a ransom, to be freed from material costs (from paying alimony, paying a debt to a creditor).

An analysis of the current criminal legislation indicates that the legislator considers the mercenary motive to be the most serious of all possible, and therefore this motive is given the status of a circumstance that increases the degree of public danger in the vast majority of crimes.

Motive and purpose can serve as circumstances that, without changing the qualifications, mitigate or aggravate criminal liability, if they are not indicated by the legislator when describing the main composition and are not provided as qualifying characteristics (6, p. 185).

Thus, in accordance with Article 54, Part 1, Clause “e” of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, committing a crime motivated by national, racial and religious hatred or enmity, out of revenge for the lawful actions of other persons, as well as in order to hide another crime or facilitate it commission are circumstances aggravating criminal liability and punishment.

The content of this motive is the guilt’s rejection of the victim’s belonging to a certain social status, race, nationality or religion, or the desire, on the contrary, to assert the exclusivity of one’s own national, racial or religious affiliation.

Committing a crime out of revenge for the lawful actions of others increases the punishment because the guilty person prevents others from acting in accordance with the law and exercising their constitutional rights and freedoms. Committing a crime in order to hide another crime or facilitate its commission increases the punishment because two crimes are committed simultaneously, and in the second case, to evade responsibility for the first crime (10, p. 131)

At the same time, the commission of a crime due to a combination of difficult personal or family or other circumstances, or motivated by compassion, are circumstances that mitigate criminal liability and punishment (Article 53, Part 1, Clause “e” of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan).

Difficult life circumstances can be different: the illness of the culprit himself, the illness or death of close relatives, difficult material, housing, and living conditions. Motivated by compassion, for example, a theft may be committed in favor of someone in dire need or the taking of the life of a seriously ill person at his urgent request, etc. (10, p. 127).

In accordance with Article 53 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, if a mitigating circumstance is provided for by the relevant article of the Special Part of this Code as a sign of a crime, it in itself cannot be taken into account again when assigning punishment. A similar rule also applies to aggravating circumstances.

There may not be a purpose in every crime, but only in those that are committed with direct intent. Thus, the crime of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm (Article 103, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan) can be committed with both direct and indirect intent. With direct intent, the perpetrator desires the consequences in the form of grievous harm to health, and with indirect intent, he does not want to, but consciously allows the infliction of grievous harm to health or is indifferent to such consequences.

Intentional infliction of grievous harm to health for the purpose of using the victim’s organs or tissues (Article 103, Part 2, paragraph “i” of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan) is committed only with direct intent. Pursuing this goal, the subject desires the consequences in the form of causing serious harm to health. The purpose in this crime is a mandatory feature of a crime committed with direct intent. The motive for the crime has no criminal legal significance; it could be a self-interested sale for direct transplantation to another person or a professional experiment to introduce a new method of organ transplantation. Thus, the purpose of the crime not only determines the direction of the actions of the subject of the crime, but also affects the type of intent.

As a result of the study, we can conclude that motive and purpose characterize the subjective process in the mind of a person in connection with the commission of a crime. Disclosure of the content of motive and goal is the subject of research in psychological science. Various classifications of motives and purposes of a crime make it possible to determine the degree of social danger of both the crime and the criminal himself. In criminal law, motive and purpose play a threefold role.

Firstly, they can turn into mandatory features if the legislator introduces them into a specific crime as a necessary condition for criminal liability. Secondly, motive and purpose can change qualifications, i.e. serve as signs with the help of which the corpus delicti of the same crime with aggravating circumstances is formed. Thirdly, motive and purpose can serve as circumstances that, without changing the qualifications, mitigate or aggravate criminal liability, if they are not indicated by the legislator when describing the main elements of the crime and are not provided as qualifying characteristics.

LITERATURE

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Stolyarenko L.D. Psychology: Textbook for universities. – St. Petersburg: Leader, 2007.592 p.
Criminal law of the Russian Federation. General part: Textbook / Ed. prof. B.V. Zdravomyslova. M., 1999. – 480 p.
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Filanovsky I.G. The subject's socio-psychological attitude towards crime. L., 1970. P. 51-53.
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The idea of motives in a legal concept

The classification of motives for a crime made it possible to identify the main components of guilt that led a person to commit an action. The separation of concepts is used to accurately define an offense in criminal law; its characteristic features are used. For example, physical influence by one person on another due to jealousy or revenge. At the same time, when investigating criminal offenses, they take into account signs that are significant in this direction and treat psychological motives with caution.

These include formations of actions with the following character:

committing a crime in a base way - selfish, hooligan, with personal interest, out of envy, careerism
offenses deprived of baseness due to the desire to stop the criminal attack, excess of self-defense, infliction of injury at the time of detention of the criminal

The judge considers all the motives provided by the investigator on the basis of investigative measures in order to find out the truth that prompted the citizen to commit certain actions.

Based on the motivation, the factual essence that was the reason for the criminal action is revealed.

If we divide the motives into types, we get the following picture:

negative, characterized by antisocial parameters aggravated by aggravated circumstances
indifferent by its definition, an apathetic person commits an act in a state of boredom or simply
does not act when he sees that a situation may lead to the death of a certain person, but does nothing to save him
positive - based on altruism and kindness, consideration of the reasons that influenced the offense can mitigate the punishment, but in no way exempts from criminal liability

For example, a nurse felt sorry for a hopelessly ill hospital patient; she saved him from suffering by giving him a lethal drug, from which the patient died. This case represents euthanasia, but is regarded as a banal murder.

Finding an outlet for personal passions in violating public order has a motive. It is not always easy to establish during the investigation of criminal cases; it is human nature to hide the true reason for committing offenses, and the investigator has to reveal the motives that prompted him to commit a crime in order to assess the gravity of the act.

Disclosure of the definition of the subjective side

In legal terminology there is no subjective side as a concept. Although lawyers often use the definition:

to characterize the internal part of the offense
reflect the human psyche at the time of criminal acts
determine how he relates to the fact committed

The signs of this element, which form the corpus delicti, consist of the following components:

motive, provocateur of determination
guilt, in the form of a mental attitude towards an action committed that is dangerous to the environment
a goal consisting of ideas about the result

An important legal problem includes the debatable subjective side. It is of interest to scientists to determine the meaning of motivation as a behavioral basis for the maximum in-depth study of the psychology of citizens who violate the law. There is a varied assessment of the reasons for committing a crime. For example, proven wine is a mandatory component. Optional elements are translated into mandatory elements at the request of the legislator.

Banditry

According to Article 209 of the Criminal Code, which provides for punishment for banditry, an integral feature is the designation for what purpose the attack was committed.

The emotional state of human nature is difficult to accept by law; it is not customary to include it as part of a criminal act.

As an exception, Articles 106 and 107 of the Criminal Code were approved. They deal with such cruelties as the killing of newborn babies when the mother is in an affective state. Mitigating circumstances are caused by mental trauma that caused inappropriate behavior, subject to medical evidence provided.

Emotions also divide signs into 4 categories; they are used by philosophers and psychologists, rewarding

duration and strength:
according to my mood
level of passion
affect
feelings

Feelings can reflect actual facts, express how an individual relates to his needs, and perceives what happened. Affects include short-term manifestations; a person may fall into stupor or, on the contrary, begin to actively act in rage.

Passion is governed by strong emotions, which become the cause of many criminal atrocities. Much also depends on the mood; gloomy or cheerful things can last for a long time and serve as the background for mental processes. Of course, there is no special purpose to assign criminal legal significance to all human emotions.