Only a person can be charged with a crime. Neither the legal entity, nor the institution, nor the organization can be held liable for violation of the Criminal Code. Each crime has its own individual characteristics, which also include the characteristics of citizens involved in it. In our article, we will try to figure out in which cases criminal liability arises, which persons may be brought to it.
General information
Each person has qualities inherent only to him. All possible individual characteristics of the subjects of the crime cannot be reflected in the legislative structures establishing liability for violation of the law.
A person who has committed a crime is not recognized as an entity subject to criminal liability if he does not possess a minimum set of certain qualities. The Criminal Code contains the most common characteristics of the personality of the criminal and is reflected in the characteristics of the subject. The presence of this set of qualities makes it possible to hold a person accountable under the Criminal Code.
Among the key problems associated with the study of the characteristics of the subject of the crime, there are questions regarding sanity and determining the characteristics of a special subject. The criminal liability of persons with a mental disorder that does not exclude sanity stands apart.
Important point
As an analysis of domestic criminal norms shows, the legislator throughout the history of the country has constantly worked to improve those provisions of the Criminal Code in which the signs of the subjects of the crime are fixed. The list of unlawful acts was constantly changing, and questions regarding persons subject to criminal liability were clarified at different stages of the development of the state, taking into account the tasks that confronted him in the field of combating crime.
The emergence of new economic relations, the improvement of the civil service institution, military reforms and other reforms require a rethinking of many concepts related to liability for crimes with a special composition.
Criminal liability
This concept is considered one of the fundamental in criminal law theory. Criminal liability is an element linking crime and punishment. It is in it that the meaning of the Criminal Code is expressed.
Criminal liability is considered a subspecies of legal liability along with administrative, disciplinary, civil law, etc. This concept is often found in various norms, one way or another related to the establishment of punishment for crimes.
Criminal Law Relations
They arise in the presence of a legal fact - the commission of a punishable act by a specific subject. It must be said that the criminal law relationship is far from always fully realized, that is, it is filled with a certain factual content (for example, the subject who committed the infringement has not been established). In such a situation, the state through the authorized body can give a negative assessment of the act and the person involved in it, but cannot express it in a court order (sentence). In turn, the subject who committed the unlawful act cannot be deprived of hardship and hardship and undergo a criminal record as a specific consequence of condemnation by the state.
The content of the criminal law relationship is formed by the duties and rights of the subjects. This means that the specific right of one person corresponds to a similar duty of another. For example, the state can demand from the criminal a report for the acts committed by him, the right to apply coercive measures to him, etc. These possibilities correspond to the citizen's duty to report on the deed, to take coercive measures.
Responsibility Implementation
If a crime is not recorded or uncovered, the resulting offense will not acquire real content. Accordingly, the criminal liability will be unrealized - it will not receive development in other elements. This situation also occurs when law enforcement agencies, having established all the circumstances of the crime, are deemed permissible, on the basis of criminal norms and subject to certain conditions, to release the guilty from punishment. In this case, responsibility will be terminated - it will not receive a natural, logical development.
The application of liability means that after a criminal offense has occurred, the rights and obligations of the entities were realized in strict accordance with the requirements of the law. Before this, of course, complex factual relationships are formed that are aimed at determining the limits and nature of mutual obligations and rights exercised in a specific procedural form. After that, the responsibility of the subject of the crime will be reflected objectively in the relevant coercive measures. They are elected by the will of the state and implemented by authorized bodies. Coercive measures act as forms of realization of responsibility.
Subject of crime
In the general sense, it is a citizen who has committed an act punishable by criminal norms. Simply put, this is a criminal.
In the narrow sense, the subject of the crime is a citizen who is able to bear responsibility under the Criminal Code in the event that he commits a socially dangerous assault intentionally or through negligence provided for by criminal law. From this wording it follows that the subject should have such signs that allow him to be attributed to persons subject to criminal liability.
The most important feature of the current criminal law is to be fixed in Art. 19 of the Criminal Code of the general conditions for the onset of liability relating specifically to the subject. So, in accordance with the norm, only sane persons are subject to criminal liability. These can only be people. It is impossible to establish the sanity or insanity of an organization, institution, legal entity. Another important point in determining the subject of a crime is the age at which criminal liability ensues. In Art. 19 nothing is said about him specifically. Normally, there is only a mention that the subject must reach the age of criminal responsibility. It should be noted that a single minimum threshold does not exist. The age at which criminal liability sets in varies depending on the specifics of the crime.
It should be noted that the above conditions together constitute the first concrete and clear interpretation of the definition of the subject of crime in domestic law. Previously, the norms reflected only certain signs of persons subject to criminal liability: their sanity and age.
The previous Codes also did not explicitly state that only an individual can act as a subject of a crime. Modern criminal law of the Russian Federation considers a criminal act as a social phenomenon. Based on this, the legislator clearly indicates that the subject can only be a person who has relatively free will and reason. This view is fully consistent with the objectives, principles of criminal law, as well as the goals of punishment, formulated in the norms.
Criminal Code, Chapter 4: persons subject to criminal liability
As mentioned above, one of the key conditions for imposing punishment on a subject under the Criminal Code is to reach a certain age.
It must be understood that its minimum limit cannot be set arbitrarily. For this, it is necessary to take into account physiological data, apply the data of age and general psychology and pedagogy, and analyze the possibilities and abilities of adolescents. It is necessary to find the age line with which a person has the ability to understand the meaning of his behavior and to manage it.
Simply put, the prohibitions that are reflected in the Criminal Code, when translated into a simple language, will be accessible to minors. For example, all children know that it is impossible to take someone else’s, you can’t offend anyone, etc. But to bring a specific person to justice it is necessary that he possess a certain level of legal awareness, have the ability to evaluate not only the actual aspect of his actions / inaction, but also the social significance.
A person’s achievement of the age of responsibility also presupposes that he has the ability to correctly perceive the criminal penalty imputed to him. Only in this case will the chosen measure achieve the goals of justice.
Taking into account all the above, we formulate conclusions. The minimum age of liability under the Criminal Code cannot be less than the age at which a person forms separate legal representations, when he can be aware of the prohibitions established by the Criminal Code. However, this is extremely insufficient to determine the minimum age limit. Recently, more and more experts note the acceleration of the intellectual and physical development of adolescents. This indicates that the ability to correctly evaluate and control their actions will be manifested at an earlier age. However, this does not have to lead to a reduction in the age of responsibility.
It is also important to consider the possibilities of society to counteract the socially dangerous actions of adolescents without applying criminal sanctions, but through the use of educational measures.
Thus, the issue of establishing the age of criminal responsibility is not only socio-psychological or pedagogical. This is a problem in criminal policy. In a more civilized society, the level of educational and preventive work is higher. Accordingly, the age of responsibility may also be higher.
Cases involving minors
In the current legislation for the first time a special section is provided, which is devoted to the characteristics of the responsibility of persons under the age of 18. Its introduction into the Code, however, does not exclude the possibility of applying certain rules of the Criminal Code to minors regulating the imposition of punishment for adults. This, in particular, is about the provisions governing liability in the aggregate of sentences / acts, minimum terms of imprisonment, etc.
A key feature of the current legislation should be called the possibility of the court and investigative authorities not to prosecute certain categories of minors. Such a right was not enshrined in previous Codes. Let us turn, for example, to part 3 of article 20 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The norm establishes that if a minor reaches the age established by parts 1 and 2 of Art. 20, but due to a lag in mental development unrelated to a mental disorder, during the commission of an unlawful, socially dangerous assault, he could not adequately assess the consequences of his actions and control them, then he would not be punished. Of course, the fact that a person is subject to exemption from criminal liability must have documentary evidence. For this, a forensic psychiatric examination is appointed.
Nuances of the norms of the Criminal Code
The separation of the specifics of punishment of minors in a separate chapter means that the general rules of the Criminal Code in relation to these entities are applied subject to these special provisions. This situation is due to the socio-psychological status of citizens assigned to this age category.
The current legislation allows criminal prosecution from the age of 14. At this age, a citizen of the Russian Federation receives a passport. In most cases, those who have reached the age of 16 are subject to criminal liability. On the one hand, the socialization of subjects aged 14-18 is at a fairly high level. They acquire independence, the ability to manage their actions, perseverance, the ability to control themselves. At the same time, the process of socialization continues: a person studies at a school or college, determines his position in society, and accumulates experience in interpersonal interactions.
It is no secret that at this age, adolescents are characterized by excessive categorization, hot temper, inability to objectively assess what is happening, imbalance, etc. It is because of these features that it was decided to establish a number of exceptions and make certain amendments to the rules on liability of minors.
Undoubtedly, maturity to a person does not always come with age. An important condition for growing up is understanding responsibility towards society, other people, the state, and the law. As practice shows, most juvenile delinquents do not understand the wrongfulness of their behavior. They do not have a sense of proportion, ideas of what is permitted, duty, fear of punishment, fear of public censure. Therefore, the concept of the age of criminal responsibility is very arbitrary.
Adolescents often attribute their illegal behavior to socio-economic instability in the state, city, region, etc. As a rule, the life needs of 14-18-year-olds are quite simple and primitive. Moreover, in most cases, the material good prevails over the spiritual. Many teenagers strive to achieve goals at all costs, including breaking the law. About a third of juvenile offenders justify their unlawful behavior by their weak character and lack of willpower. Annually such phenomena as “herd collectivism” and “false partnership” are increasingly the causes of committing illegal acts. In article 20 of the Criminal Code, the legislator tried to take into account all these factors.
Special cases
Separately, it should be said about the criminal liability of persons who committed a crime while intoxicated. In such situations, the subject may show impulses and attitudes, usually suppressed by him. Moreover, a person may completely lose control over his behavior.
There are 2 types of intoxication: physiological and pathological. The first comes slowly. In total, there are 4 stages of physiological intoxication. However, regardless of them, the subject will be responsible before the law for committed unlawful acts. Of course, only those subject to criminal liability will be punished. This means that they must have all the characteristics of the subjects of the crime.
As for pathological intoxication, it is considered as a painful, temporary state of the psyche. It occurs suddenly when drinking in small doses. Deviation is noted against the background of an outwardly adequate condition: a person looks sober, he has a intelligible speech, the smell of alcohol is absent. However, with pathological intoxication, he manifests aggression, rage, etc. This condition is a prerequisite for recognizing the subject as insane.
Based on the provisions of Article 23 of the Criminal Code, persons who committed unlawful acts while intoxicated due to the use of narcotic, psychotropic substances or alcohol are not exempt from criminal liability. We emphasize that this provision applies to cases of physiological intoxication. The condition of the person may be different. It depends on the individual characteristics of his body, the quality and quantity of the drink or dose of the drug, gender and other factors.
A state of intoxication can be considered as an aggravating or mitigating circumstance. The latter is possible if it was forced. This means that the subject was in such a state against his will and committed a crime under duress.