Despite the stability achieved in the economy, the crime rate in Russia is not declining. After 2005, there were no outbreaks of organized crime, but nevertheless, the level of offenses within the Russian Federation does not give hope for optimism. One of the reasons for the sufficient work in the field of criminal offenses is the internal contradictions of existing legal norms.
Actual problems of criminal law can be divided into several large groups. Each of them needs additional consideration and refinement.
The problem of the concept of the object of crime
Actual problems of criminal law are required to consider offenses as a system of constant conflict between the state and its citizens. One of the basic concepts in this process is the process of explaining the object of a crime as the basis for qualifying an offense.
The doctrine of the object of crime was formed in the XIX century. Then the works of A. F. Kistyakovsky, V. D. Spasovich and others appeared on the press, dedicated to the problem of choosing the object of crime. Currently, a relationship has been developed to the object of crime as a set of public institutions, which are damaged as a result of an offense. Actual problems of criminal law and the criminal process are called upon to consider the conflicts of various institutions of the modern state. Among these institutions, the most important are:
- man, his freedoms and rights;
- social values, benefits, interests;
- private, public, state property;
- public safety and order;
- Environment;
- state and its interests.
Violation of any of them entails an imbalance between justice, as citizens understand it, and obligation, as the state understands it. And the basic contradictions between the model of justice and the law relate to fundamental issues of law in general. In the general case, the object of a crime can be considered an infringement of any legitimate interests of the victim as a result of the action (or inaction) of other persons. But in particular, the definition of this object belongs to the field of legal theory. For example, the protection of one’s own interests on the part of one citizen can be considered by the system as a socially dangerous act or even terrorism. The use of force during detention may be justified from the point of view of a policeman, but a detainee may consider this an abuse of authority. There are a great many such examples. This issue is considered by lawyers studying current problems of the theory of criminal law.
Law and process
Actual problems of criminal procedure law boil down to the hard work of lawyers in the following areas:
- problems of conducting criminal proceedings and prospects for its development;
- compliance of the prosecution and defense procedures with international standards;
- the problem of collecting evidence;
- court proceedings; technical regulations, sentencing;
- appeal process of the court verdict: the procedure for filing cassations, appeals;
- repeated reviews of criminal cases in connection with newly discovered circumstances;
- stages of the appointment and conduct of forensic examinations, the involvement of third-party specialists.
Criminal law practice
Modern legal science recommends that you actively work in the applied direction of the development of jurisprudence and develop various methods that help to accurately assimilate and adequately put into practice the current laws, its individual provisions and norms, which constitute modern criminal law. Actual problems of theory and practice are discussed at various legal seminars, where lawyers find any general solutions to a particular problem and develop effective methods for applying these solutions in practice.
Classification and definition of homicide
Modern norms attribute deprivation of life to the most low-latent acts, which means that, in theory, more time and effort should be allocated to the prevention of this offense than to any other act. At first glance, statistics confirm a decrease in homicides, but is this really so? Actual problems of criminal law are designed to give an answer to this question.
Current legislation keeps records of killings by fact, but not by the number of victims. So, the killing of ten people will be qualified under paragraphs "a" and "e" of part 2 of article 105 (murder of two or more persons committed in a generally dangerous manner). In this case, the statistics of killings does not include inflicting particularly serious injuries to the victim, which cause death. Out of the attention of the "killer" statistics, there are many victims passing under the article "missing" and so on.
The number of law enforcement officers
One of the most painful conflicts in society is the confrontation between law enforcement institutions and crime in general. The modern criminal justice system today is not able to respond to even a third of recorded criminal offenses. If the registration of offenses will be conducted for each identified case, the system simply paralyzes. This contradiction can be resolved by increasing the number of employees of the state legal machine - investigators, police, prosecutors, judges.
Possible solutions to the problem
But our country already takes a leading place in the world in the number of law enforcement officers. Why does this system work so inefficiently? This is one of the contradictions, which is obliged to replenish the urgent problems of Russian criminal law, and this issue should be resolved as soon as possible. One of the methods to solve the problem is to expand the list of freedoms for citizens (that is, what was forbidden by law by law will not be so). An alternative to this option could be the widespread prevention of crime - something that lawyers in other countries of the world are now doing.
Corruption and Personal Responsibility
Actual problems of Russian criminal law are crowned by the issue of personal responsibility of the offender. The fact is that in our country personal responsibility is tightly connected with such a concept as corruption.
An effective law enforcement system must destroy this duumvirate. Over the past 15-20 years, the fight against corruption has not gone further than talking about it. Money spent on the fight against corruption, settled in the pockets of officials in uniform. The sprouts of corruption that needed to be destroyed at the very beginning entangled all state institutions of management and control. Persons called to deal effectively with the dominance of money and ties go to responsible positions only to fill their pockets. But at the moment, we can say that our country lost this battle and rightfully leads the list of the most corrupt countries in the world.