In Russian law, the concept of an offense is enshrined in the Criminal Code. Also, the regulatory document includes a description of liability. In the article, we consider the concept and structure of offenses, as well as their types and punishment for committing such acts.
Concept and signs of an offense
An offense is any unlawful act on the part of a person that is harmful to another person, group of persons or society as a whole. In a word, an offense is an actual violation of the laws of the state, which entails negative consequences. It does not have to be a threat to life or health, it can be moral harm or psychological pressure.
There are several basic signs of abuse:
- Public danger. Any violation constitutes harm to a particular person, society or the whole country. The degree of this danger can be different and is determined in accordance with applicable law. But one way or another, the main symptom of the offense is a manifestation of public danger.
- Wrongfulness. Everything is quite simple here: if there is no law or rule, then there is nothing to break. The very concept of an offense implies a violation of a rule.
Types of Offenses
Violations of the law are divided into crime and misconduct. Below we consider in more detail the structure and types of offenses.
Crime - violation of the law, which is specified in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. That is, the crime has all the same characteristics as the offense. But if such an unlawful act is regulated precisely by this legislative act, it can be considered a crime. For example, murder, theft, the outbreak of war.
Misconduct - a violation of administrative, labor or civil law. In a word, these are rather small offenses that do not pose a particular danger to an individual, society or state. For example, hooliganism or a fight.
The structure of crime and misconduct also includes the subjective and objective parties.
Based on these concepts, a number of main differences can be distinguished:
- Public danger. Crime is a serious act. The act is insignificant.
- Punishment. In the case of a crime, the punishment is imprisonment, correctional labor, or serious fines. In the case of misconduct - a warning, a small fine, a short-term arrest.
- Term of attraction. When it comes to misconduct, they can only be held accountable for several months. In the case of crimes, they can be held accountable even after many years.
Components
The structure of the offense allows you to show what basic elements it consists of. It is important to clearly understand what each of them is. This is a series of terms for participants and the violation itself. Structuring allows everyone to always understand what is at a particular moment in question, without further explanation.
In accordance with current legislation, four main elements can be distinguished that determine:
- The object of the offense.
- The objective side of the offense.
- The subject of the offense.
- The subjective side of the offense.
It is very important to clearly understand what each of the elements means, so that subsequently there is no confusion.
Object and objective side of the offense
To deal with the elements of illegal actions, they should be considered in more detail, and it is also better to do this in pairs. The structure of the offense includes:
- The object of the offense is directly public relations regulated or protected by law. In a word, an object can be any interpersonal, business, commercial, or any other relationship. But it is important to clearly understand that all this should be the so-called "legal" relationship. Any legal relationship that is regulated by legal acts or directly by law, as well as those that are not prohibited, can be called legal.
- The objective side is a slightly more complex concept, which consists of a number of different elements. Such elements may be the act itself, the direct harm caused by this act, an explanation and description of the cause-effect relationships between the actions and consequences that they led to. Also here can be attributed such elements as the time of the violation, the method of its commission and more.
The subject and subjective side of the offense
Now in more detail we will try to deal with the second and last pair of elements of the offense. The second group in the structure of the offense is the subject and subjective side. What it is?:
- The subject of the offense is the person who committed the wrongful act. It is important to understand that a “person” is not necessarily a specific person. It can be a group of people, a registered organization, etc. In fact, the subject is one who has violated the law.
- The subjective side is the responsibility for the act committed by the subject. Also to this concept can be attributed the very presence of guilt, which still needs to be proved.
Public Hazard Criteria
It is no secret that any offense differs in the degree of public danger, which is established by law, and depending on which the punishment is subsequently passed. These criteria in the structure of the offense include:
- The significance of the offense. Of course, some violations are practically harmless, but others can sometimes threaten not just a person, but the whole state. The more significant and, therefore, the dangerous act, there are more serious and severe consequences.
- The amount of damage. Sometimes the offense can be quite serious, but due to some circumstances, it may not be harmful. Even if there is no damage, the act will be unlawful, but the punishment can sometimes be milder.
- The way. A very important role is played by the way the act is committed. Sometimes a person deliberately violates the law, pursuing personal goals. But there are also frequent situations when a person wants to do everything according to the law, but in the end he makes a mistake somewhere. All this can affect the outcome of the case.
- Time. Time plays an important role, especially when it comes to old violations. It happens that the violation was committed a long time ago, and the relevant law just came out.
- Motive. It can play both a positive role and a negative one. But if a person during the act wants and tried to do "the best", this can mitigate his punishment.
- The identity of the offender. It often happens that minor violations can be forgiven to persons who have not previously been convicted and did not violate the law. But at the same time, everything works and vice versa.
Categories of Offenses
Depending on the degree of public danger, several categories of offenses are distinguished. All of them are regulated by the Criminal Code, AK, TC and Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Their main difference is the severity of the punishment. Consideration of the structure of the offense allows you to determine the degree of guilt and punishment.
If we talk about the degree of guilt, then we are talking directly about the crime. In this case, the categories of crimes will be as follows:
- Light weight. Punishment - less than 2 years in prison.
- Moderate Punishment - less than 5 years in prison.
- Serious crimes. Punishment - up to 10 years in prison.
- Particularly serious crimes. Punishment - from 10 years and more.
Do not forget that misconduct is considered separately, for the commission of which a person will be punished in any case. As a rule, it will be less than the punishment for committing an act of minor gravity. This includes offenses that practically do not carry danger (or bear, but it is small).
Civil and administrative offenses: structure and description
All types of offenses can be divided into large enough groups that have their own distinctive features.
Civil offenses - those whose distinguishing feature is the object of the attack. The object here is property or non-property relations, which are regulated by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Most often, a civil offense is a failure to fulfill obligations under an agreement or causing property damage. Punishment for such crimes is most often the obligation to compensate for the damage, restore everything to its original form or pay a fine. More serious punishments may also be, but this is more likely the exception. The object is civic values (responsibility, taxation and the like), the subject is an individual or organization committing illegal acts.
Administrative offense. They constitute a violation of generally accepted and binding rules that are established by administrative authorities. Such violations include non-compliance with traffic rules, non-compliance with fire safety, petty theft and more. The penalty is most often a fine, but sometimes, depending on the act, the punishment can be of a specific nature (for example, deprivation of a driver’s license).
The object of an administrative offense is public relations in the areas of land, financial, constitutional, labor law. Subjects - individuals and legal entities. The structure of administrative cases includes the stages of their initiation and consideration.
Labor, procedural and environmental offenses
Labor offenses are illegal actions of the subject of labor law. Simply put, this is any violation that is indicated in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. You should be aware that each employee and employer has not only their rights, but also the duties that are prescribed in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Violation of the duties indicated here is a labor offense. The punishment is also most often fines, but it can also be a loss of bonus or dismissal from work.
Procedural offenses - violation by the subject of procedural legislation. An example would be a violation of the conduct of the trial, failure to appear and so on. For such actions, the subject may be infringed on his own rights, for example, by taking him out of the courtroom.
A separate group consists of environmental offenses. This is an unlawful activity of a competent person that causes harm to nature and the environment or violates the rights and interests of subjects of environmental law. The structure of environmental offenses does not differ from ordinary unlawful acts.
Executive and international offenses
Executive offenses - actions that are contrary to the norms of criminal executive law. Such acts may be committed only by officials (for example, bailiffs) or those who are in prison.
International offenses are a violation of the norms and rules of international law. These are actions that harm other states or the entire world society as a whole. An example would be poaching, piracy, violation of international treaties.
The structure of offenses in the international environment also includes:
- object (regarding what the crime is committed: international law and order or a system of relations);
- the objective side (actions of the subject);
- subject (states, enterprises and organizations, individuals);
- the subjective side (the offender’s attitude to the situation: intent, negligence, ignoring and inaction).
Types of punishment
According to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, there is a large list of types of punishment, which is constantly changing and edited. Currently, it looks like this:
- Fine.
- Deprivation of the opportunity to occupy certain positions.
- Deprivation of the opportunity to engage in a certain type of activity.
- Deprivation of honorary titles (for example, military).
- Mandatory or correctional work.
- Restriction of movement or freedom.
- Arrest.
- Content in disciplinary institutions.
- Life imprisonment.
The article examined the concept, types, structure of offenses. We can say that the activities of people often cause controversy and can be dangerous to society. Therefore, the provision of punishments and prosecutions at both the state and international levels takes on special meaning.