The classification of corpus delicti is not only of theoretical significance, but also of practical importance. The correct implementation of regulatory requirements is impossible without understanding the essence of legal categories. Features of criminal acts become more apparent when viewed in groups formed on any basis.
Types of crime are usually classified on several grounds. These include:
- the degree and nature of the public danger of the committed act;
- its completeness;
- objective side design;
- a way to describe the main signs of a crime.
For the first reason, simple, privileged and qualified compositions are distinguished. The indicated types are distinguished by the presence or absence of factors that “increase” or “decrease” the guilt of the offender. So, the corpus delicti without extenuating and
aggravating circumstances is called simple. The presence of both factors is the definition of a qualified “complex” of an object, subject, and parties of the same name. The privileged composition implies the presence of only aggravating circumstances.
The second basis is the degree of completion of the criminal act. Types of corpus delicti on this basis are delineated directly in the text of the Criminal Code. Thus, an act can be complete and unfinished. In the first case, according to the precept, the actions of the violator contain the whole complex of signs of corpus delicti provided for by 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 unfinished crime, in turn, can be qualified as preparation for it. Or, depending on the available signs, the act is recognized as a complete or incomplete attempt.
The third basis subdivides the types of corpus delicti depending on the design of one of the components - the objective side. The latter has various signs. In this classification, formal and material compositions are distinguished.
The second type takes into account the whole complex of the main features of this element: the act and consequences, which are in the nature of public danger, as well as the causal relationship of 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 socially dangerous consequences resulting from this incident, for example, damage to human health, are already a crime.
Types of corpus delicti, classified on this basis, include cases where only the nature of the act is taken into account, and not the consequences themselves. For example, the dissemination of knowingly false and disgracing information to a person, regardless of the consequences, qualifies as a criminal act. But in this case we are talking about a formal composition.
The latter can be presented in two forms. Here, the types of crime are distinguished by the degree of completion. A simple composition involves the full implementation of criminal intent. In the second case, we are talking about preparing for the commission of an act. Such a composition is called truncated.
A way to describe the signs of a criminal act formed 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 abuse. The second, for example, deals with such an illegal act as robbery. In this situation, there are two objects of encroachment, and such a composition is called complex.