Robbery is a crime against the constitutional rights and freedoms of a person, for which criminal liability and punishment are established by the court.
Punishment for this criminal act is determined in accordance with the provisions of Article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Here are 4 points with an established preventive measure - without qualifying signs and with various forms of qualification.
Responsibility under the law in accordance with Art. 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
Next, we will consider what punishment is provided and how many years are given for different types of this offense.
Without qualifying features
For a simple attack on a victim, punishment is provided in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in the following amounts:
- Forced labor for 5 years or imprisonment in a secure institution for up to 8 years.
- Additionally, fines in the amount of 500 thousand rubles or in the amount of the person’s earnings (other income) for a period of up to three years may be imposed.
Forced labor is assigned at the place where the convicted person is distributed by the court. Stay in places of deprivation of liberty can be carried out in general regime correctional colonies. Sometimes - in penal colonies, if there are enough mitigating grounds in a robbery case.
With qualifying features
Primary qualification occurs when the offender acts alone, but during the attack uses a weapon that he uses against the victim, causing him bodily harm of varying degrees of severity. If a weapon is not used, but is used as a threat and serves the purpose of intimidating the person from whom valuables are taken, the qualification also applies.
In addition, the use of weapons means the use of any improvised objects that can be used to hit the victim of a crime or suppress her , causing psychological violence. Such items could be:
- broken bottles;
- sticks of various lengths and thicknesses;
- stones and bricks;
- iron rods and similar items.
If there are no weapons, but there are two or more criminals, then this form of qualification, corresponding to paragraph 2 of Article 162, also comes into force. Here, such a nuance as conspiracy or preliminary planning of robbery by a group of persons is taken into account.
If the second offender joined in the commission of a crime spontaneously, already in the process of committing it, qualifications for the main offender may not apply if he did not ask for help in committing the attack. Based on clause 2, the punishment is imposed in the following amount:
- Imprisonment for up to 10 years.
- Additionally (at the discretion of the court), a fine of up to 1 million rubles or in the amount of the income of the convicted person for a period of up to 5 years may be imposed, as well as subsequent restriction of freedom for up to 2 years. Additional measures may not apply.
In this case, isolation on the territory of the colony settlement is already excluded.
Criminals are placed in general and sometimes strict regime colonies. The qualification of the crime under paragraph 3 of this article provides for robbery during illegal entry :
- in the victim’s home;
- to the warehouse from which the property was seized;
- to another premises from which property or money was stolen (shop, office, entertainment venue, etc.).
Or – when it is a known fact for the criminals that the attack promises the seizure of money and/or valuables on a large scale. In criminal law, this amount (with the exception of some articles, which does NOT include robbery) is considered to be an amount over 250 thousand rubles. This paragraph provides for the following criminal penalties:
- Imprisonment for a term of 7-12 years.
- Additionally, a fine of up to 1 million rubles or in the amount of the income of the convicted person for up to 5 years and/or restriction of freedom for up to 2 years may be imposed.
Such terms of imprisonment are mainly carried out in high-security zones, with the possibility of switching to a general regime after half the term of imprisonment.
The maximum type of qualification is specified in paragraph 4 of Article 162 . Here, criminal liability is aggravated by the following circumstances:
- In case of robbery by an organized group of persons by prior conspiracy. An organized group is understood as a stable criminal entity that commits robbery attacks and consists of two or more people.
- Robbery on an especially large scale. A particularly large amount in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is considered to be an amount of money or the total value of stolen goods from 1 million rubles.
- When grievous bodily harm is caused to the victim at the time of the attack.
This type of crime carries a maximum penalty which is as follows:
- Imprisonment of the offender for a term of 8-15 years.
- Additional sanctions: a fine of up to 1 million rubles or in the amount of the convicted person’s income for up to 5 years, the possibility of restriction of freedom for up to 2 years.
The bulk of criminals are sent to maximum security colonies, sometimes to special security colonies, where they must serve two-thirds of their sentence, after which it is permissible to apply for a transfer to a more lenient level of punishment.
We talk about what qualifying criteria determine the type of robbery, what the corpus delicti may be and the liability provided for, we talk in a special material.
Subject, object, subjective and objective side
Robbery refers to crimes with a truncated composition.
The moment the robbery ends is the moment the victim is attacked for the purpose of stealing someone else’s property, committed with the use of violence dangerous to life or health, or with the threat of such violence (the robbery ends from this moment).
Reference.
Truncated compositions are considered completed from the moment the first of the elements of the objective side is completed. To recognize a crime with a truncated element as completed, the occurrence of a criminal result is not required; it is not even necessary to complete the actions that lead to the occurrence of such a result.
Material offenses are characterized by the fact that the moment of completion of such crimes is associated with the onset of socially dangerous consequences, and the consequences are not included in the description of the objective side of formal offenses, and this description is limited to an indication of the commission of certain actions.
The composition of robbery can be presented as follows (concepts and characteristics of the composition):
- An object.
This crime has two objects: property relations and relations to protect personal integrity. Optional objects: life, health, inviolability of home.
- Objective side.
The objective side is an attack that is accompanied by physical violence or the threat of it (mental violence).
Such violence must be dangerous to life and health, and the attack itself must be aimed at taking possession of someone else’s property.
- Subject.
The general subject of robbery is a sane individual who has reached 14 years of age (Part 2 of Article 20 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
- Subjective side.
The subjective side is expressed in the form of direct intent. An optional feature of the subjective side is the goal. The purpose of robbery must be selfish. Thus, if the attack was for a completely different purpose, unrelated to the intent to steal, the qualification under Article 162 is excluded.
Recommended reading:
The difference between robbery and other related compounds
Commentary to Art. 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Robbery)
What types of robbery exist?
From what age are you attracted?
Regardless of qualifications, responsibility for this crime is assigned from the age of 14 years. Of course, in this case, the punishment is mitigated by the age of the guilty person, which is used by both the teenagers themselves and seasoned criminals who involve them in criminal acts. If juvenile offenders are given a sentence of imprisonment, they serve it in juvenile correctional facilities.
From our separate publications, you can also find out when robbery is classified as a committed crime, as well as how it differs from robbery and banditry.
Characteristic signs of robbery
The criminal’s act begins as theft (secret theft) and develops into robbery if the crime begins secretly, but if for some reason it ends openly (the thief takes a wallet from the victim’s bag, but at that moment becomes noticed by other persons, and does not leave his target, for example, runs away with a wallet). If a person is caught at the scene of a crime, and at the same time abandons the stolen property and hides, in this case the crime is classified as theft, and not robbery.
The crime is qualified, one of the qualifying features is Part 2 of Art. 161 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (here both a group of persons and the use of violence). These are aggravating circumstances, and the punishment, accordingly, will be somewhat more severe than in the absence of such circumstances.
Changes to the article
In the last year (2017), no changes were made to the above article. But there were changes from 06/02/2016, indicating that a person who committed a crime for the first time, who repented, appeared before the investigative authorities, helped in solving the crime and made amends to the victim, can be released from criminal punishment. But, true, in the event that the guilty act is not considered serious. It is worth saying that in our case the crime refers to crimes of medium gravity.
Another amendment looming on the horizon: the State Duma of the Russian Federation proposes that some crimes committed against the property of citizens (the punishment for which is up to 5 years) be removed from the provisions of the Criminal Code and transferred to the Administrative Code, since annually the President announces an amnesty to which persons whose punishment falls corresponds to a five-year period of isolation. This innovation is due to the fact that not all perpetrators receive and serve the appropriate punishment. Perhaps there is a grain of rationality in this. But for now these are only legislative initiatives, and whether these amendments and in what form will enter into legal force is not yet known to the law enforcer.
Group of persons
So, let's consider in more detail the qualifying feature of clause a, part 2, art. 161 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Robbery committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy.” This feature acts as an aggravating circumstance of the first part of this article.
Comments to Art. 161 (Part 2) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation gives grounds for the law enforcement officer to classify the crime as qualified if the following signs are present:
- There must be a group of people. Those. there is a group formation in which two or more persons are directly involved in a crime, being accomplices.
- Collusion. The theory of criminal law states that criminals may not agree in advance about the process of a crime, but this does not mean that such agreement does not exist in principle. It is achieved later - either before the start of the act, or already during its commission.
- All accomplices to the crime must be classified as subjects of the crime (capacity, age).
As you know, accomplices include: perpetrators, instigators, organizers, accomplices. So, persons who are not performers cannot be punished under the provisions of this article. Only the perpetrators bear punishment. The remaining persons bear their punishment using the provisions of the articles of the general part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
If it is not possible to establish a preliminary conspiracy, then the crime is qualified under the first part of this article.
Despite the work of the investigator, the final decision on the classification of the crime is always made by the court when considering the case materials.
