Types of crimes in modern Russian criminal law theory

Classification of crimes is not only of theoretical importance, but also of practical importance. Correct implementation of regulatory requirements is impossible without understanding the essence of legal categories. The characteristics of criminal acts become more obvious if we consider them groups formed on some basis.

Types of crimes are usually classified for several reasons. These include:

• The degree and nature of the public danger of the deed committed;
• Its completeness;
• The design of the objective side;
• A way to describe the main features of a crime.

On the first basis, a simple, privileged and qualified composition is singled out. These species are distinguished by the presence or absence of factors that "increase" or "reduce" the guilt of the offender. So, the composition of the crime without mitigating and aggravating circumstances is called simple. The presence of these and other factors - the definition of a qualified "complex" of the object, the subject and the parties of the same name. Privileged composition implies the presence of only aggravating circumstances.

The second reason is the degree of completeness of the criminal act. Types of crimes for this reason are delineated directly in the text of the Criminal Code. So, the deed can be finished and unfinished. In the first case, according to the injunction, the actions of the offender contain the whole complex of signs of the offense set forth in the relevant article of the law. In the second case, the act of a person must be characterized by all the features of an attempt or preparation for a criminal act.

An incomplete crime, in turn, can be qualified as preparation for it. Either, depending on the signs present, the deed is recognized as a complete or incomplete attempt.

The third basis subdivides the types of crime compositions depending on the design of one of the components - the objective side. The latter has various characteristics. In this classification, there are formal and material compositions.

The second type takes into account the whole complex of the main features of this element: an act and consequences that have the nature of a public danger, as well as a causal relationship between these two components. This composition takes place in the case when the act committed by a person (in itself) is not directly provided for by the Criminal Code. For example, violation of traffic rules is an offense, but not a crime. And the socially dangerous consequences that have resulted from this incident, for example, damage to human health, are already a crime.

Types of offenses classified for this reason include cases where only the nature of the act is accounted for, and not the consequences themselves. For example, the dissemination of knowingly false and disgracing person information, regardless of the consequences, qualifies as a criminal act. But in this case we are talking about a formal composition.

The latter can be represented in two forms. Here the types of corpus delicti differ in the degree of completeness. A simple composition presupposes a full realization of the criminal intent. In the second case we are talking about preparing to commit an act. Such a composition is called truncated.

The method of describing the signs of a criminal act was the basis for the following classification. There are simple and complex compositions. In the first case, the properties of crime are associated with only one object of encroachment. In the second case, for example, it is a question of such an illegal act as robbery. In this situation there are two objects of encroachment, and such a composition is called complex.