Bringing to criminal liability: procedure and criteria, grounds and conditions

The development of a state can be judged by the standard of living of citizens, the level of industrial development and the integrity of the legislative system. In Russia, unfortunately, most citizens do not know their rights and responsibilities. For example, how does the process of criminal prosecution work?

Criminal law is the law that is aimed at protecting people, their property, rights, and so on. Criminal liability is the responsibility of the offender to answer for his or her crimes.

General terms

A person can be held criminally liable (CR) only if he meets the following requirements:

has reached the age at which this responsibility begins;
is a mentally sane person.

Age

The age at which the educational qualification begins is 16 years.

Attention! In exceptional cases, the age is 14 years, for example, if a person has committed particularly serious crimes (rape, murder, etc.).

Sanity

Signs by which one can determine that a citizen is insane:

cannot control his actions;
cannot understand how dangerous his actions or inaction are;
does not realize the nature of the actions he performs.

EO for persons with mental disorders

If a person was sane at the time of committing a crime, but did not realize the danger to society and the actual nature of his actions/inaction due to a mental disorder, according to Art.
22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, it is subject to the Criminal Code. There are a number of criteria, both legal and medical, with the help of which it is determined whether a citizen is insane or has limited sanity.

Medical criteria:

psychopathy of various types;
dementia;
chronic mental disorder;
mental disorder is temporary.

Legal criteria:

whether the person was aware of the danger of his actions or inaction;
whether the person could control his actions.

In order to establish that a citizen is of limited sanity, a comprehensive examination of a mental and psychiatric nature is required. Limitation is established in court.

If it is established that the offender has limited sanity, this will not relieve him of criminal punishment, but can mitigate it.

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Article 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Criminal liability of persons with a mental disorder that does not exclude sanity”

Commentary to Art. 19 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

The commented article defines the general characteristics of a person subject to criminal liability. This person must be natural, reach the age of criminal responsibility and be of sound mind. These signs form the legal structure of the subject of the crime.

The criminal law of the Russian Federation recognizes only an individual (person) as the subject of a crime. Legal entities are not considered subjects of crime. This approach to resolving the issue of the subject of a crime is not characteristic of the criminal legislation of all countries. In a number of countries, legal entities are also recognized as subjects of a crime (for example, in France, the USA).

The position of the Russian legislator in resolving this issue is due to the fact that only the person guilty of committing a crime is subject to criminal liability. It is the principle of subjective imputation that makes it possible to recognize exclusively an individual as the subject of a crime, since the mental attitude to an act and its consequences is characteristic only of a person. Therefore, even in cases where a crime is committed in connection with the activities of a legal entity, only a person who has committed a socially dangerous act and shown consciousness and will in relation to it can be guilty.

Awareness of the social significance of one’s action and its consequences is characteristic only of man, but not of any person, but of a person who has a certain degree of moral, intellectual, mental development, a certain life experience, which is not acquired simultaneously, but accumulates gradually. A person’s achievement of these positions is associated with the factor of the time of his life in society, the assimilation of accepted (both formally and informally) standards of behavior.

Therefore, the second sign of the subject of a crime is the person reaching the age of criminal responsibility, upon reaching which the state could demand accountability for socially significant behavior, and the person could be held accountable for it.

The third sign of the subject of a crime established by law is sanity. Sanity means the presence of mental health at such a level when a person is able to fully understand the actual nature and social danger of his actions (inaction) or manage them. Bringing criminal responsibility to an insane person would be contrary to the principles of guilt, justice and humanism. That is why the sign of sanity, along with others, is a mandatory sign of the subject of a crime.

In some cases, along with the signs of a general subject of a crime, the legislator uses some additional signs, thereby emphasizing that a special subject is necessary for the presence of a specific crime. The presence of a special subject, on the one hand, limits the range of crimes committed by a general subject, and on the other hand, highlights the specifics of a certain act, correlating its social danger with the properties of the actor.

The indication of a special subject is used quite widely in criminal law. Additional characteristics that define a special subject are very diverse: citizenship, gender, age, family relationships, social status, profession, etc. Thus, the subject of crimes against state power, the interests of public service and service in local government, with certain exceptions, may be only an official, the subject of high treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) - only a citizen of the Russian Federation, etc.

An additional feature of a special subject of a crime is used not only to form any corpus delicti, but also to construct privileged offenses or offenses with aggravating circumstances. For example, the subject of murder by the mother of a newborn child (Article 106 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) can only be the biological mother of the child. Involvement of a minor in the commission of a crime by a parent or teacher is a more serious act compared to the same, but committed by another person (Part 2 of Article 150 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

To summarize, we can say that those listed in Art. 19 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the signs of the subject of a crime are the minimum necessary set of signs that allow us to judge the presence of a general subject of the crime, and the addition of this set with other signs is an indication of the need for a special subject of the crime for specific crimes.

Subjects

General subjects of criminal liability are individuals from the age of the criminal justice.
Profession, occupation and other factors do not matter. Special subjects are persons who have the opportunity to exceed their official or official powers.

Who can become a subject

A legal entity cannot be charged with a criminal offense, only with an administrative one. Therefore, only an individual can be the subject of the MA.

Features of the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation

a female criminal cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment;
a woman cannot be executed;
a man aged 65 years or older cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment or executed;
Citizens under 18 years of age cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment;
citizens under the age of 18 cannot be executed;
minors cannot be sent to compulsory forced labor.

Who is not involved in the MA

You cannot bring to the MA:

children (up to 14-16 years old);
insane.

They are subject to more lenient punishments, including compulsory treatment.

Limitation periods

The limitation period for criminal prosecution is regulated by Art. 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It depends on the severity of the crime committed:

slight severity - 2 years;
average severity - 6 years;
felony, 10 years;
especially serious offense - 15 years.

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Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Exemption from criminal liability due to the expiration of the statute of limitations”

If the offense committed is punishable by life imprisonment, only the court decides whether to take the statute of limitations into account.

Video about Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

The humanitarian significance of the statute of limitations for attraction to criminal justice

There is a humanitarian significance to prescription. This:

lack of punishment for citizens who corrected themselves without applying isolation measures to them;
a positive effect on a person if he did not commit any more offenses after the first crime;
reducing the risk of mistakes by investigative authorities;
reducing the burden on the criminal system.

Calculation of statute of limitations

The more serious the offense a person has committed, the longer the sentence will be applied to him.
Attention! Each crime has its own statute of limitations, even if the citizen has committed 2 or more violations. Rules for calculating statutes of limitations:

the first day of settlement is the day the offense was committed;
the limitation period ends when its last day has completely expired;
the statute of limitations is “frozen” if the attacker deliberately evades the investigation.

Limitation restrictions

There are offenses that are not subject to statute of limitations and those that remain at the discretion of the court. In the first case, we are talking about violations of the law, which are punishable by life sentence or execution. For example:

murders committed under aggravating circumstances;
assassination attempt on law enforcement officers;
assassination attempt on military personnel.

Some violations are not subject to statute of limitations at all. This:

facilitating terrorists;
committing an act of a terrorist nature;
participation in a terrorist group;
murder of a hostage (intentional or not);
theft of transport (any) to commit an act of a terrorist nature;
preparation for war;
use of prohibited weapons during military operations;
ecocide;
genocide.

All these crimes pose a particular danger to society. Their goal is to kill people and create panic in society. The legislation of the Russian Federation does not hope to correct the villains.

What happens if the statute of limitations has expired

After the expiration of the statute of limitations, according to Art.
24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, the case is terminated only with the consent of the defendant. Termination is possible at the stage of investigation and consideration of the case in court proceedings. If the statute of limitations expires during trial:

the judge informs the defendant that he can be released;
the defendant may decide to continue the trial in the hope of saving his reputation if he is confident of a successful resolution of the case;
the defendant may agree to drop the trial.

If the court decides not to take into account the statute of limitations, it must indicate in the record why it made such a decision.

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Article 24 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation “Grounds for refusal to initiate a criminal case or termination of a criminal case”

Judicial practice under Article 19 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Resolution of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated September 3, 2019 N 87-AD19-13
Meanwhile, by virtue of an article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, only a sane individual who has reached the age established by the said Code is subject to criminal liability. Thus, bringing a legal entity to administrative liability for committing an administrative offense provided for in Article 8.38 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses does not exclude the possibility of bringing an individual guilty of committing illegal actions (inaction) to criminal liability for committing a crime provided for in Part 2 of Article 250 Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Appeal ruling of the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated April 19, 2017 N 74-APU17-2

Taking into account the conclusion of the forensic psychological and psychiatric examination, the examined case materials, as well as the studied data on the personality of the defendant, the circumstances of his crime and his adequate behavior during the trial, the court rightfully recognized V.V. Vorobyov. sane, and by virtue of Art. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is subject to criminal liability and criminal punishment for the crime committed.

Appeal ruling of the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated November 12, 2019 No. 2-APU19-3

The completeness of the information about his personality reported by the convicted person, together with the case materials presented to the expert commission and the results of inpatient monitoring of him over a fairly long period of time, allowed the court to comprehensively and objectively establish the mental state of Lisov I.Yu., and, taking into account the conclusions contained in the examination, by virtue of the articles and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, make a decision on his ability to bear criminal responsibility for his actions.

Determination of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated October 29, 2020 N 2570-O

According to the applicant, the application of these norms by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation does not correspond to the constitutional and legal meaning of bringing to criminal liability, contradicts Articles 10, 17 - 19, 45, 46 and 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Articles - , , , , and of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, paragraph 22 of article 5, paragraph 2 of part one of article 6, part four of article 14, articles 24, 90, 171 and 172, part two of article 297, paragraph 3 of part one of article 299 and paragraph 1 of article 307 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, article 11 of the Federal Law dated August 12, 1995 N 144-FZ “On operational investigative activities.”

Determination of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated March 12, 2021 N 377-O

On the same day, the court ruled to send a request to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, indicating in it that when determining the amount of the fine, the time Ch. was under house arrest (from July 30, 2021 to January 27, 2021) was not taken into account, since the disputed The law allows, when imposing a fine, to take into account only the time spent in custody before sentencing. Based on this, in its request the court - noting that preventive measures in the form of detention and house arrest have a similar legal nature - asks to check for compliance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, its articles (part 2), (parts 1 and 2) and (parts 2 and 3), part five of the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as not providing, in violation of the constitutional provision on the equality of citizens before the law and the court, the possibility of taking into account the time a person was under house arrest before sentencing when assigning him the main punishment in the form of a fine.

Recruitment process

The process of attracting a citizen to a criminal organization is regulated by the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. The main point is that until the court has established that a citizen is a criminal, no one has the right to call him that.
The following factors influence punishment:

if it is proven that a citizen is a criminal, does he plead guilty;
whether the attacker repents of his crime;
whether the violation of the law was intentionally committed;
perhaps the offender was provoked or threatened;
perhaps the crime was committed through negligence.

The relationship between criminal and administrative liability

There are more differences between criminal and administrative liability than similarities. For example:

a criminal offense is punishable by arrest;
For an administrative offense, punishment is imposed in the form of compulsory labor and temporary isolation.

The UO is responsible for such violations as extortion, beatings, thefts, and murders. The AO is responsible for violations such as failure to comply with traffic rules, petty hooliganism, and so on.

The Criminal Code is the strictest of all; its extent is determined only by the court. AO is less strict, occurs as a result of an administrative offense and is regulated by the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

Concept of criminal liability

Criminal liability is one of the types of legal liability, along with administrative, civil, and disciplinary liability. It also acts as one of the measures of state coercion. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation does not disclose the concept and content of responsibility, which allows scientists to form a scientific debate on these issues, expressing different points of view. Analyzing the latter, the concept of criminal liability can be formulated as follows.

Criminal liability is the obligation of a person who has committed a crime to undergo measures of influence provided for by criminal and criminal procedural legislation, consisting of deprivations of a personal or property nature, expressing a negative assessment of the committed act and the culprit himself, and with the goals of restoring social justice, correcting the culprit, and also preventing the commission of new crimes by both them and other persons.

The concept of criminal liability is used by the legislator in various articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In particular, Part 1 of Art. 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; Part 2 Art. 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; Art. 5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; section 4 is devoted to exemption from criminal liability and punishment; section 5 – criminal liability of minors.

Separate norms are contained in Art. 8 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Grounds of criminal liability” and Art. 19 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “General conditions of criminal liability”.

In the norms of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the legislator established responsibility for socially dangerous acts recognized as crimes, and it also stipulates the types and amounts of punishment for their commission. The presence of such norms, contained in the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, characterizes criminal liability as preventive. In the theory of criminal law, it is called positive responsibility. It informs citizens under what conditions, if a crime is committed, government measures will be applied.

The implementation of the retrospective (negative) aspect of criminal liability begins from the moment a specific criminal legal relationship appears, arising from the moment a person commits a crime. It is obliged to be subject to government measures, and at the same time has the right to protection. The state, represented by law enforcement agencies, can apply to a person who has committed a crime the measures provided for by criminal law and ensure the right to protection of this person. That is, mutual rights and obligations arise between the person who committed the crime and the state.

In practice, the obligation of a person who has committed a crime to undergo measures of state legal coercion may not always be implemented. For example, when the culprit hides from the investigation and trial, or the crime is not solved under other circumstances. Therefore, the person who committed the crime is not always punished.

Criminal liability is much broader in its scope of punishment. In some cases, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for criminal liability without imposing punishment. So, for example, in Art. 92 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishes a provision according to which a minor who has committed a crime of minor or moderate gravity can be released from punishment by applying compulsory educational measures to him.

Criminal liability comes before punishment. From the point of view of the positive aspect, its appearance is the moment the criminal law comes into force, that is, the moment the threat of criminal prosecution of the person who committed the crime arises.

From the point of view of the retrospective aspect, criminal liability arises when a crime is committed and a criminal legal relationship arises. In this regard, rights and obligations arise between the state and the person who committed the crime.

Bringing a person to criminal liability is the next stage of its implementation. Criminal procedural measures are applied to the person who committed the crime; In the committed act, the elements of a crime are established. Next comes the stage of execution of punishment. Criminal liability remains for the entire period of the criminal record until it is withdrawn or expunged, or until an amnesty or pardon is applied.

Criminal liability has the following characteristics.

1. Criminal liability arises only for the commission of a crime (Article 8 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Acts committed by persons who have not reached the age established by criminal law (Article 20 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and are insane (Article 21 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), minor acts (Part 2) are not crimes, and, therefore, cannot act as a basis for criminal liability Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), as well as acts that are not crimes, committed in conditions of necessary defense (Article 37 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), extreme necessity (Article 39 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), justified risk (Article 41 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

2. Criminal liability is a measure of state coercion provided for by criminal law, imposed only by the court and implemented with the participation of authorized state bodies.

3. Criminal liability is accompanied by an official state conviction of the person who committed the crime. When a conviction is made, the court, on behalf of the state, condemns the offender, recognizes the crime committed, and declares the person who committed the crime to be a criminal.

4. The content of criminal liability lies in the negative legal consequences for the person who committed the crime, who must undergo deprivation or limitation of his rights to the extent provided for by criminal law.

The scope of deprivation (restriction) of rights, which consists of criminal liability, is the largest (up to life imprisonment) in contrast to all other types of legal liability.

5. Criminal liability is implemented in a special procedural form. The activities of law enforcement agencies and the court to establish a person’s guilt are regulated by the criminal procedure law (Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation). Execution of criminal penalties is carried out in accordance with the articles of the Criminal Executive Code (hereinafter referred to as the Penal Code of the Russian Federation). Thus, criminal procedural and criminal executive legislation ensure the implementation of criminal liability.

6. Criminal liability is strictly personal in nature, that is, it is assigned only to the person guilty of committing a crime, only to a sane individual who has reached the age established by criminal law (Article 19 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

In domestic legal science, the concept of criminal liability is interpreted differently. In general, there are the following main points of view on this issue.

1. Criminal liability is the legal obligation of the person who committed the crime to suffer the adverse consequences provided for by the sanction of the criminal law.

2. Criminal liability is a consequence of committing a crime, and it arises only from the moment a person is convicted by a court and a guilty verdict is passed (N.F. Kuznetsova, N.A. Ogurtsov, Yu.M. Tkachevsky, V.G. Smirnov, A.V. Kladkov, etc.).

3. Criminal liability is determined through the legal status of the person who committed the crime; is identified with a criminal legal relationship or is determined through a set of criminal legal, procedural and executive relations (A.E. Natashev, A.I. Martsev, Yu.B. Melnikova, etc.).

4. Criminal liability is criminal punishment, the application of sanctions (O.E. Leist).

The disagreements between the first two points of view are associated with the moment of the emergence of criminal legal relations. They contain three elements: subject, content and object. The subjects of criminal law relations are the person who committed the crime, on the one hand, and the competent authorities of the state (inquiry, preliminary investigation, prosecutor's office and court) on the other. The object of a criminal legal relationship is the very fact of committing a crime, and the content is an interconnected set of rights and obligations of both parties to the legal relationship. Since criminal liability is an integral part of the content of law enforcement, the moment of its occurrence is quite legitimately associated with the moment of the emergence of a criminal legal relationship.

Criminal legal relations and criminal liability actually arise from the moment a crime is committed, even if the person who committed it is unknown. Since from this moment the norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the expiration of the statute of limitations for bringing to criminal liability (Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), on the operation of the criminal law in time (Articles 9–10 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) begin to apply.

The criminal procedure law gives reason to believe that criminal legal relations arise from the moment the crime is committed. Thus, a criminal case is initiated upon the commission of a crime. A criminal legal relationship cannot exist without all its necessary elements, i.e. there is a subject, an object, and content. Therefore, the first point of view from these positions seems to be the most correct. Thus, criminal liability arises from the moment the crime is committed.

The third point of view about the concept of “criminal liability” reflects the procedural meaning. Indeed, criminal procedural liability arises from the moment a person is brought in as an accused, when he can be subjected to criminal procedural coercive measures: for example, if one of the preventive measures can be chosen.

At the same time, to impose criminal procedural liability, only probabilistic knowledge of a person’s guilt is sufficient. Thus, the investigator has the right to bring charges only if there is sufficient, but not exhaustive, evidence that gives grounds for bringing charges against the person. That is, criminal procedural liability is possible in relation to a person who may subsequently be found innocent, but criminal liability for such a person is impossible.

Thus, criminal liability arises before the start of the criminal process and, as a rule, continues after its completion.

In cases established by criminal law, criminal liability for the crime committed is terminated in the following cases:

1) in connection with the entry into force of a new criminal law that eliminates the criminality of the act;

2) in connection with exemption from criminal liability and punishment (Articles 75–85 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);

3) in connection with serving a sentence, expunging or expunging a criminal record (Article 86 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Thus, criminal liability is the obligation of the person who committed the crime to personally undergo measures of state coercion, consisting of deprivations of a personal, property, and moral nature, which express a negative attitude towards the crime committed by the state and society.

This obligation arises from the moment the crime is committed, is implemented during the preliminary investigation, when a court pronounces a sentence, while serving a sentence, during the period of an outstanding or unexpunged conviction, and is terminated in the manner prescribed by law.

The concept of criminal liability is closely related to the concepts of “punishment” and “conviction”.

Criminal liability is realized in the process of serving a sentence, but it is also possible without imposing a punishment. In such cases, the court makes a guilty verdict, but does not impose criminal punishment. For example, when minors are released from punishment (Article 92 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

In addition, criminal liability and punishment do not coincide in time. Criminal liability arises and begins to be implemented from the moment the crime is committed until the sentencing is imposed by the court, and continues in all cases even after serving the sentence in the form of a criminal record. A criminal record is a special legal status of a person, implying restrictions and deprivations of a legal and moral nature. A criminal record continues after serving a sentence for a more or less long period of time in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Thus, criminal liability in all cases is broader than the concepts of “punishment” and “conviction”. It is possible without imposing a punishment and, therefore, without a criminal record, but punishment and a criminal record without criminal liability are impossible.