The concept of criminal liability means punishing a person for committing an unlawful act that poses a danger to the life or health of society, as well as for other misconduct contrary to the norms of the current legislation.
Criminal liability is a concept used and implemented by the judicial authorities on the ground and on a national scale. This term can be considered in one of three main forms:
- Responsibility in the form of a sentence of prosecution, punishment and, as a result, a criminal record.
- In the form of a sentence and probation.
- For minor children, educational work is provided that is mandatory and replaces a criminal record. Thus, the child is punished for committing unlawful acts, but is not placed in prison.
The concept and basis of criminal liability is based on the fact of the commission of an act, the essence of which is considered illegal. That is, the Criminal Code contains an article prohibiting an act. In order to send the case to court, the investigator must indicate the corpus delicti, confirming the existence of grounds for accusation of the suspect. The composition is a complex of signs of both subjective and objective nature, thanks to which the act can be officially attributed to actions that violate public order or threaten the life and health of citizens.
So, as these characteristics, four main elements can be distinguished:
- The object is that value or material good that is affected by the perfect action. It is assumed that the result of the act may be damage to property or other types of sabotage.
- The objective side provides for a special act that can harm society or a specific person. The concept of criminal liability provides for the consideration of the reasons for the existence of a fact, the consequences that led to its completion, and ways of communication between these concepts. As an example, we can single out a method of committing a crime, a means, an instrument of crime, and so on.
- The subject is an individual who is in his right mind and has reached a certain age, from which comes responsibility for his own actions.
- The subjective side includes all psychological factors that affected the severity of the crime. These signs suggest the presence of a certain motive, preliminary intent. In addition, the investigator is obliged to find out for what purpose the act was committed, as well as whether there are grounds to consider the person psychologically unstable, that is, whether it is worth conducting an examination.
The concept of criminal liability is expressed in two forms:
The first means the commission of an actual act contrary to law and requiring appropriate punishment. And inaction can also be punishable, because there are situations in which some help or other action is absolutely necessary. Then the absence of a fact may serve as a basis for bringing to justice.
Thus, the concept of criminal liability is not only a duty of a judicial authority to punish a person for committing unlawful acts, but also an opportunity to restore justice when accusing an innocent person. Legislative power was created to protect the rights of all citizens of the country and persons of a foreign state. Law enforcement officers should understand the behavior of the offender, his emotional state at one time or another, in order to take the necessary precautions in time.