The first mentions of robbery appeared in legal codes of the 13th century. The determining factor in this crime has always been murder. However, the actions of the gangs of robbers who robbed merchants and random travelers on the road were quite understandable: do not leave living witnesses, because such atrocities were punishable by death. Over the centuries, legislative practice has changed greatly, but the responsibility of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for robbery remains quite strict. Let's understand the basic concepts and features of this type of crime.
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Article 162. Robbery of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
What qualifies as robbery?
By definition, robbery is a violent form of taking someone else's property. This implies that some form of violence is always applied to the victim, or that the theft occurs with the help of a weapon or the threat of its use. The definition of “weapon” includes any item that can cause harm to health or take the life of a victim:
- stone;
- stick;
- piece of reinforcement;
- knife;
- gun.
However, the methods of committing a crime may vary, and illegal actions may not always be classified as robbery. If an attacker jumps up on a citizen in a gateway, threatening to beat him up in order to get money, the act falls under the definition of robbery. The person is clearly aware of the threat to health, and theft of other people's property occurs.
Another situation is if similar actions are performed by a teenager with a puny build in relation to a strong, adult man. There is no threat here, so the crime can be regarded as hooliganism or a failed robbery attempt. However, if a group of this teenager is located nearby, gloomily playing with baseball bats, the crime again falls under the definition of robbery, moreover, committed by an organized group by prior conspiracy.
Important! Robbery falls under Article 162 of the Criminal Code, which clearly defines the methods of committing crimes and the degree of punishment for the actions committed.
Punishment
For a crime of this kind, the legislator always provides for long-term imprisonment. The article on robbery contains the following punishment terms:
- for a crime without additional signs (as we have already noted, such situations do not happen often) - up to 8 years in prison, an additional fine of up to half a million rubles may be imposed;
- if the attack was committed by several accused and/or a weapon was used, then there may be a punishment of up to 10 years in prison with an additional fine of up to a million rubles, as well as restriction of freedom;
- when there was penetration into a residential premises or a store, or in case of theft of more than 250,000 rubles - up to 12 years of isolation with the same additional punishment;
- If more than a million rubles are stolen or grievous harm is caused to the victim, then the person guilty of committing a robbery can be sentenced to up to 15 years .
Defining Features
According to current legislation, during robbery attacks there is always an attack on the property and person of the victim. This is the motive and corpus delicti. However, the use of violence always implies additional actions on the part of the suspect: he put a knife to his throat, swung a stick, hit him on the head with a stone. These are already defining signs that indicate the severity of the crime committed. Let's consider how such signs are classified under Article No. 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Using weapons or other objects
The purpose of such crimes is to intimidate the victim in order to seize his property. Moreover, the elements of the crime include not only the actual use of the object in relation to the victim. Weapons can be:
- demonstrate;
- attach to a part of the victim’s body;
- use as a threat to the victim’s family and friends;
- use in relation to pets.
Those guilty of committing such crimes may face up to 10 years in prison with compensation in an amount not exceeding 1,000,000 rubles.
Attack committed by a group of persons
There is always a preliminary conspiracy here, when responsibilities are clearly distributed between the attackers.
For example, one participant directs accomplices to the victim, the second commits an attack, the third controls the situation to warn of danger. Such actions also provide for a penalty of 10 years in prison with a fine of up to 1,000,000 rubles.
Important! As legal practice shows, of the three suspects listed above, only two can be held responsible. If the group members do not hand over the gunner to the police, it will be very difficult to prove this person’s involvement in the crime.
Robbery with entry into an apartment or other premises
Such atrocities are based on the gullibility of citizens, when a housing office representative who rings the doorbell suddenly pulls out a pistol or knife, demanding to give up the money and valuables in the house.
In this case, the victim may be beaten to get what they want. For such actions you can get 7-12 years in prison with a mandatory fine of up to 1,000,000 rubles.
Causing grievous harm
Here it is implied that as a result of the robbery the victim received serious injuries that pose an immediate threat to life or remained disabled.
The accused faces up to 15 years of detention with a fine of 1,000,000 rubles.
Causing damage on a large scale
If material assets worth more than 250,000 rubles are stolen from the victim, it is considered that the robbery was committed on a large scale.
The accused may face imprisonment for up to 12 years and a fine of 1,000,000 rubles.
Causing damage on an especially large scale
This definition means stolen property in an amount exceeding 1,000,000 rubles.
Punishable by 8-15 years in prison and a fine of up to 1,000,000 rubles.
Organized group
Here, too, there is a preliminary conspiracy of several persons, but the crime resulted in serious harm to health or was committed on an especially large scale.
Punishable by up to 15 years in custody and a fine of 1 million rubles.
Commentary on Article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
1. Robbery is one of the most dangerous crimes against property, always encroaching on two objects: someone else’s property and personal integrity. An optional object may be human life, health, or the constitutional right to the inviolability of the home.
2. The objective side of robbery is expressed in an attack on the victim, accompanied by physical or mental violence, dangerous to life or health, and aimed at taking possession of someone else’s property.
2.1. The difference between robbery and robbery with violence lies in the degree of violence used in order to seize someone else's property. Robbery constitutes an attack with the use or threat of use of violence dangerous to life or health. This is understood as violence that resulted in the infliction of serious or moderate harm to the health of the victim, as well as minor harm to health, causing a short-term health disorder or a minor permanent loss of general ability to work (see paragraph 2 of paragraph 21 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 29).
2.2. Deprivation of life is not covered by robbery, and therefore it is qualified under the totality of paragraph “c” of Part 4 of Art. 162 and paragraph “h”, part 2, art. 105 as murder associated with robbery (see paragraph 22 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 29).
2.3. Part 1 comment. Article qualifies an attack that, although it did not cause harm to the health of the victim, at the time of the use of violence created a real danger to his life or health (see paragraph 3 of paragraph 21 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 29).
2.4. Robbery should be defined as the introduction into the victim’s body of potent, poisonous or intoxicating substances that are dangerous to life or health with the aim of rendering him in a helpless state and taking possession of someone else’s property (see paragraph 4 of paragraph 23 of Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 29).
2.5. In cases where the seizure of property is associated with a threat of violence that is of an uncertain nature, the issue of recognizing the actions of persons as robbery or robbery must be decided taking into account all the circumstances: the place and time of the crime, the number of criminals, the nature of the objects with which they threatened the victim, the victim’s subjective perception of the nature of the threat, etc.
3. The robbery is completed (by the main group) at the moment of the attack with the aim of stealing someone else’s property (see paragraph 6 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 29).
4. The subjective side of robbery is characterized by guilt in the form of intent and selfish purpose. If an attack combined with violence was committed without the purpose of stealing the victim’s property, robbery is excluded.
5. The subject of a criminal offense may be a sane individual who has reached the age of 14 at the time of the commission of the crime.
6. Part 2 comments. The article provides for a criminal offense for robbery committed: a) by a group of persons by prior conspiracy; b) using weapons or objects used as weapons.
6.1. Preliminary conspiracy of a group of persons is understood in the same way as in theft and robbery, but with the difference that the content of the conspiracy is the intention to commit an attack dangerous to life or health, in order to steal someone else's property. However, it is not necessary that all members of the group intend or use violence. It is sufficient if it was assumed that the violence would be committed by one of the co-perpetrators or if it was committed by prior agreement of the co-perpetrators by one of them.
6.2. Committing robbery with the use of weapons or other objects used as weapons aggravates the qualification of the act as a crime and increases the severity of the punishment imposed for the crime. Weapons are defined in Art. 1 of the Weapons Law. Other objects used as weapons should be understood as any objects that can cause bodily harm to the victim that is dangerous to life or health (razor, axe, crowbar, baton, etc.) (see paragraph 1, 2 p. 23 Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 29).
6.3. If the perpetrator threatened with a obviously unusable weapon or imitation weapon, for example, a dummy pistol, a toy dagger, etc., without intending to use these objects to cause bodily harm dangerous to life or health, his actions (in the absence of aggravating circumstances) taking into account the specific circumstances cases are qualified as robbery under Part 1 of the commented Article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation or as robbery if the victim understood that he was being threatened with an unusable or unloaded weapon or an imitation weapon (see paragraph 3 of paragraph 23 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 29).
6.4. Repeatedness as a qualifying sign of robbery is excluded from Part 2 of the commentary. Article 162 of the Criminal Code Federal Law of December 8, 2003 N 162-FZ.
6.5. For a description of the sign of penetration into a home, premises or other storage facility, see paragraphs 14 - 17.2 of the commentary to Article 158 of the Criminal Code of Russia; clause 7 - 7.2 comment. to Art. 161 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
7. Robbery committed: 1) with illegal entry into a home, premises or other storage facility is recognized as especially qualified (parts 3, 4 of the commentary article); on a large scale (part 3); 2a) by an organized group; 2b) for the purpose of taking possession of property on an especially large scale; 2c) causing grievous harm to the victim’s health (part 4). The signs specified in paragraphs “1”, “2a”, “2b” are disclosed in the comments. to Art. 158. Such a special qualifying feature as “a person’s previous conviction two or more times for theft or extortion” is excluded from Part 3 of Art. 162 Federal Law dated December 8, 2003 N 162-FZ.
7.1. Causing grievous bodily harm means the occurrence as a result of the actions committed by the guilty party of the consequences provided for in Part 1 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. At the same time, additional qualifications under Art. 111 is not required. Clause “c” of Part 4 of Art. 162 of the Criminal Code does not cover serious harm to health resulting in death, and therefore qualification is required based on the combination of paragraph “c” of Part 4 of Article 162 and Part 4 of Art. 111 (see paragraph 5 of paragraph 21 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 29).
8. Acts provided for in parts 1, 2 comments. articles belong to the category of grave crimes, parts 3, 4 - especially grave crimes.
Differences between robbery and robbery
At first glance, there are many similar features between such crimes. In particular, for both cases the goal is to steal someone else's property, the attacker acts openly and threatens to use violent actions against the victim. The difference between robbery and robbery is that during robbery there is no threat to the health and life of the victim. In the case of robbery, threats are always justified and pose a real danger . Therefore, robbery is considered a more serious crime.
Difference between crimes
There are several signs that classify robbery and robbery. For example:
- action - with robbery there is always a threat to health and life, with robbery there is not;
- malicious intent - during robbery, violent actions are always used to take possession of the victim’s property; during robbery, they may be absent;
- consequences - robbery implies criminal liability from the moment the illegal actions begin, but it does not take into account whether the plan was completed. A robbery is committed when the accused takes possession of the property;
In addition, the victim must understand that at the time of the crime there is indeed a real threat. For example, if a criminal uses a dummy gun, but the victim is unaware of it, the defendant's actions are classified as robbery. In cases where the victim realizes that the weapon is not real, but gives valuables to the criminal, the action can be regarded as robbery.
Difference between assault and violent robbery
Here, in both cases, violence is implied and the victim receives physical harm. However, the method of committing the crime and the damage caused to health are taken into account.
For example, an attacker tries to take a wallet from a woman’s purse. The victim notices these actions and tries to interfere. However, the attacker pushes the victim, snatches the bag and runs away. The woman fell and received bruises and abrasions, but there was no intent to cause harm to health in the actions of the criminal, so the crime is considered robbery, although violence was used.
A similar situation, but having discovered that his actions were discovered, the criminal took out brass knuckles and struck him in the temple, after which he snatched his bag and ran away. Here, the victim’s health will be seriously damaged, so the crime falls under the article of robbery.
American nuclear self-propelled gun - prototype T-162 (1950s)
After the Second World War, the Cold War began between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, which was accompanied by an arms race. One of the priorities was the creation of nuclear weapons and various means of delivery, which would make one of the parties a world leader. In addition to ballistic/intercontinental missiles, underwater/surface/ground/aircraft missile carriers and warheads, completely exotic types of both carriers and nuclear charges were created. These types of weapons include atomic weapons.
In the United States, the idea of creating such a weapon came to them in the 1950s, when engineers were given the task of creating a long-range self-propelled gun that fired nuclear weapons of minimal caliber. The basis is taken from a well-proven analogue of a self-propelled gun from the Second World War - M53/M55. The standard self-propelled gun has a 155mm caliber; for the new self-propelled gun it is equipped with a 175mm caliber barrel. If the characteristics of combat effectiveness can be judged by tests, then externally the new self-propelled gun, designated T-162, looks quite powerful and beautiful.
American engineers already had experience creating ammunition with a caliber of more than 200mm, and 175mm ammunition was chosen as the smallest possible at that time. The location of the turret remained unchanged in the rear of the hull. The extension of the enlarged barrel, more than 10 meters long, was practically not noticed by the self-propelled gun - the barrel was comfortably placed along the front of the hull. The crew was housed in a closed turret and could easily work with nuclear ammunition and casings. The rotation axis of the turret part was not in the center, but slightly in front, the floor was made at the level of the shelves above the track tracks. At the bottom, under the tower part, reinforced ribs are installed. In addition, if the self-propelled gun gets into the zone of use of weapons of mass destruction, then each crew member does not need to use PPE when performing combat work; for this, the self-propelled gun is provided with a collective protection system. However, this did not help to significantly increase the rate of fire of the self-propelled guns. But for an atomic weapon, even such a rate of fire of 2 rounds/min is quite acceptable. The estimated ammunition supply could be about 10 rounds of ammunition.
Tests have shown that the T-162 self-propelled gun has very high recoil; the gun could fire in a limited sector - ±30 degrees horizontally. This was explained by the fact that only in this sector the most powerful recoil was extinguished by a powerful coulter.
One of the most important problems for self-propelled guns is its full combat weight. The gun weighed 44,500 kilograms, which is quite a bit for a long-range weapon. But at the request of the main customer of the United States Army, this nuclear self-propelled gun had to be able to be transported by air.
It was necessary to provide, when military units were concentrated anywhere, fire support in the form of long-range guns firing atomic ammunition. The 45-ton self-propelled gun did not meet the minimum payload parameters of the most powerful aircraft. Therefore, the military had to abandon the use of the T-162 self-propelled guns in favor of self-propelled guns based on the M207, the basic version of which weighed about 28,000 kilograms with an ammunition capacity of 2 nuclear shots. The weight of the installation made it possible to move it to the theater of operations by American transport personnel of the BTA type. Some of the self-propelled guns were sold to Israel, and some were sent around the world to be installed in tank museums.
Sources of information: https://ru-armor.livejournal.com/201515.html https://alternathistory.org.ua/sau-t-162-ssha https://www.waronline.org/blindage/index1n.htm
How is robbery coupled with murder classified?
Let's consider 2 possible qualification options:
- A person is subject to criminal liability for a set of crimes provided for in paragraph “h” of Part 2 of Art. 105 and according to paragraph “c” of Part 4 of Art. 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in the event that during the commission of a robbery it kills the victim (PPVS dated December 27, 2002 No. 29 “On judicial practice in cases of theft, robbery and robbery”).
A similar explanation is contained in paragraph 11 of the PPVS dated January 27, 1999 No. 1. This position was ambiguously perceived in the doctrine, but judicial practice is based on the recommendations of the Supreme Court.
Thus, the Belgorod Regional Court correctly qualified G.’s actions as a set of crimes (Articles 105 and 162):
G. attacked the driver of a heavy vehicle in order to steal non-ferrous metals, and in the process of committing a robbery he shot him.
- Attention should be paid to the qualification of murder followed by theft of the victim’s property (Article 105 + Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Let's imagine this situation:
A. came to D.’s apartment and, while drinking alcoholic beverages, began to choke him. These actions led to the death of D. After this, A. decided to steal all valuable property from D.’s apartment.
Despite the fact that the first and second situations are similar, since the victim is killed and his property is confiscated, A.’s actions cannot be qualified in totality, since the intent to steal property arose after the attack on the victim and the use of life-threatening violence against him .
In this case, A. must be brought to criminal liability under the totality of: Part 1 of Art. 105 and the corresponding part of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Important! In case of murder associated with robbery, the person’s intent to steal someone else’s property must arise before the execution of the objective party begins.
If an armed attack is committed for the purpose of theft
The Supreme Court comments in detail on the provision on committing a robbery with the use of weapons or other objects that can be used as weapons.
So, every time the courts must involve experts in order to investigate whether this or that object is a weapon. The Resolution provides a definition of objects, which should be understood as objects of the material world that can be used to cause “dangerous violence,” as well as the threat of causing such violence (knife, saw, bat, etc.).
We also note that if V. and G. decided to commit a robbery, during which only V. used a pistol, then both V. and G. are subject to liability under Part 2 of Art. 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation as co-executors.
The following situations are of interest:
- Let's imagine that A., wanting to steal property from B., threatens him with a toy pistol. At the same time, A. understands that such a toy will not cause any harm to B., he uses it to intimidate. In this case, we will qualify A.’s actions under Part 1 of Art. 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and not under Part 2. Resolution No. 29 states that if a person uses an unusable or unloaded weapon to make a threat, as well as objects that imitate weapons, then his actions fall under Part 1 of Art. 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
- Another qualification will be if B. understood that the gun was a toy. In this case, A.’s actions are regarded as robbery (Article 161 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
- If A., wanting to steal property from B., uses an animal (for example, a Rottweiler) to attack, which poses a danger to the life or health of B. Such actions are qualified under Part 2 of Art. 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Recommended reading:
The concept of robbery, signs and assigned punishments
Robbery: corpus delicti
Forms of complicity in robbery
