Organizer of the crime: legal definition, functions and criminal liability

As the third part of Article No. 33 of the Russian Criminal Code states, the organizer of a crime is the person who organized or supervises its implementation. Under the same definition, a person who created an organized team or community and led his actions falls. In the mechanism of collective criminal acts, this is the person who poses the greatest threat.

Definition Details

The organizer of the crime forces another citizen to commit an act and is himself involved in this process. Here he performs the function of a direct executor, as well as other persons involved in this business.

Also, the organizer can control this process, but do not participate in it. Another variation is participation, but only those actions that lead to the success of such an activity.

Crime organizers pose the greatest threat to minor citizens. According to statistics, more than 50% of criminals who are under 18 years old make their "criminal debut" under the control of adults with a criminal record.

Specific traits

Signs of the organizer of a crime that distinguish him from other participants in the process are:

1. Initiative. It is expressed in the preparatory stage on the eve of the crime, the involvement of other persons in this matter and their selection, active participation in the development of the algorithm for the implementation of the criminal operation and participation in it.
2. The implementation of secondary functions in the ongoing act. However, the leadership position is not lost. And process management is based on prior agreement. In other words, in a crime, its organizer can perform one or more functions.
3. Awareness of the consequences of the use of a particular type of weapon and its selection.
4. Mismatch of his personal goals with the goals of the performers. But at the same time, the responsibility of the organizer of the crime remains for all actions that correspond to the general intentions of the group. For example, in case of robbery, a leader may wish for death to a specific person, and the goal of the group is to obtain material values. Moreover, the implementation of goals may not contradict the general plan.
5. Refusal to participate in the process, but its control. The organizer, like a director, distributes roles to participants, explains tasks, gives instructions. And during the performance (crime) he himself is located somewhere behind the curtains.
6. The development of criminal abilities in other citizens.

Group and organization

Russian law interprets their creation in article 210 of the Criminal Code. When creating a group, at least two citizens join together for joint unlawful acts. From this moment, the functions of the organizer can be completed or transformed into the leadership of this group.

An organization is formed of at least two such groups or their leaders with two main goals:

1. Development and implementation of criminal acts.
2. Creation of conditions for their support.

The creation of such an organization is already a completed crime. Nor do the actions of its members matter.

An independent variation of the leader’s actions is control over the created organization or its individual branches.

The activities of the leader in such situations is characterized by the fact that he:

1. It simplifies the concealment of criminal acts from law enforcement agencies.
2. Complicates the process of identifying the perpetrators.
3. Involves a large number of citizens in the organization and its work and gives its activities powerful stability.

Intent content

In the actions of the organizer of a crime from a subjective position, it covers two aspects: awareness and desire. The first concerns the actions taken, the second only the planned ones.

A leader can also act as a performer. Its functions in a particular crime are qualified in different ways. But when forming a punishment, organizational merits are necessarily taken into account and more stringent measures of action are put forward. Therefore, when the performer and the organizer are one person in a crime, he faces a very serious term and penalties.

Instigator

Its functions and concept are reflected in the fourth part of Art. 33 of the Criminal Code. This is the person who forced the other person to commit a crime. However, she does not carry out any organizational manipulations. Its task is to arouse a determination in another citizen to implement an act contrary to law. According to this criterion, the organizer and instigator of the crime are different from each other.

An instigator is considered as a performer when he:

1. He deliberately misleads another person about the potential social threat of his actions.
2. Inclines to unlawful acts of persons who are insane or have not reached the age of responsibility before the law.
3. Forces to commit crimes using threats or violence.
4. Inclines another person to such an act, suppressing her will.
5. Being the boss, orders the subordinate to commit an act that poses a threat to society.

The coercive instigator denotes certain circumstances of the implementation of the criminal act, for example, the exact address of the potential victim or the place of robbery.

Advice and persuasion to engage in activities such as incitement are not interpreted.

If, when inciting another person to a criminal act, the instigator performs organizational functions, then for the investigation he becomes the organizer. These actions include:

- purchase of weapons;

- association of participants;

- the formation of the plan.

Together, the instigator is characterized by the following symptoms:

1. Initiative to commit a specific unlawful act.
2. Declination to it of a certain person.
3. All actions are direct intent.

Incitement can also be a personal crime. His examples:

- Decline to suicide;

- coercion to use drugs and psychotropic drugs;

- involvement of adolescents in the implementation of the crime.

Assistant Roles

This is an assistant performer. The formats of his actions are divided into two categories:

1. Assistance in the preparation of the crime. Here, the accomplice helps with recommendations, information, weapons, eliminating obstacles, organizing surveillance, including using special equipment.
2. Preliminary agreement to conceal a criminal act or purchase and sale of looted property.

Also, an accomplice can assist with his inaction. This is true when he ignores his job responsibilities. For example, a kindergarten teacher, in a criminal conspiracy, left the children alone in the street. Thus, she created optimal conditions for abducting a child.

Aiding can be:

1. Intelligent. This class includes: consultations, advice, provision of information, promises about concealing a criminal, traces and tools of his crime, as well as acquired values.
2. Physical. These include: eliminating obstacles, giving weapons and other means for a crime, for example, a car, etc.

Also, the accomplice can be simultaneously a performer, then a more severe punishment is applied to him.

Variations of complicity

They differ depending on the role of members of the criminal group and the level of its organization. According to the first criterion, complicity can be:

1. Simple. In this case, all partners are performers.
2. Difficult. Other persons or one of them join the performers: organizer, accomplice or instigator.

According to the second criterion, the forms of complicity are as follows:

1. Crime team without prior agreement.
2. Option 1 with collusion.
3. Organized crime group (organized crime group).
4. Criminal structure (organization).

The organizer can become an accomplice in a complex scheme and in any organized formation. And in parallel to perform other functions.

Performing excesses

This term refers to a situation where the performer commits a criminal act for which other partners are not responsible before the law.

Such an interpretation is also allowed here: the performer implements actions that were not provided for by other members of the group. That is, there is a deviation from the general plan and conspiracy.

The performer is responsible for the crime committed by him in fact, and not for those acts to which the accomplices agreed.

Kurtosis can be quantitative and qualitative. Both species have their own specifics in the qualification of punishment.

Quantitative type

In this case, the performer goes beyond the general conspiracy and commits a heavy homogeneous or identical criminal act related to the circumstances determining the corpus delicti. In the first case, the responsibility lies with the actual violation of the law, and the acts of the other members of the group are considered an attempt on their intended crime. In the second - their actions are interpreted as a completed act, but not related to aggravating factors.

Quality type

This implies a situation where the perpetrator, outside the framework of a conspiracy, realizes another crime. And his actions are seen as:

1. Preparation for the act, which the partners planned, and a completely different act in fact.
2. Completed violations of the law when both a new and a planned crime are realized.

The organizer of a criminal offense may appear in both variations. For example, in armed robbery, he may intentionally shoot a person for personal reasons (and unexpectedly for other members of the group) and adhere to a general plan of action. And it can blow up a room and steal a car, which for the rest of the team becomes a complete surprise. In this case, he acts according to his own scheme.

Interpretation of the law and punishment

The law imposes the most stringent measures of influence on the organizer of a crime. Here, its main and parallel functions in this process also matter. The level of an organized group or even structure is also taken into account.

Based on the indicated factors, a certain criminal liability of the organizer of the crime is formed. The functions, articles of the Criminal Code and their parts are reflected in the following table:

Qualification of the actions of the group’s accomplices and their organizer is based on a certain type of crime and the role of each participant in it. From these factors, certain terms and penalties are formed.

For example, a person who has organized a terrorist group and has become an active participant in it, as well as leading its actions, can be imprisoned for 15-20 years. At the same time, substantial material sanctions of up to 1 million rubles are also implied.

A member of such a community runs the risk of being left without freedom for 5-10 years and must be prepared to pay a fine of up to 500,000 rubles.