One of the most difficult questions of law: how is crime different from misconduct? For a complete and accurate answer, it is necessary to analyze the legislation. A clear understanding of the differences between the two categories will help to avoid serious life troubles. Such knowledge will benefit everyone, regardless of how well a person understands the intricacies of modern law and legal science.
Any person can commit a variety of offenses. To realize the possible responsibility for illegal acts, you need to understand the distinction between crime and misconduct. Depending on the type of act, the level of sanctions applied to the offender will vary. Below are discussed in detail all aspects that distinguish these types of offenses.
What is misconduct?
To correctly understand the differences between the terms, it is necessary to understand their essence. Misconduct - an act that violates the norms established by labor, administrative or civil law.
What is a crime?
The definition of this well-known legal term sounds very simple. A crime is an act whose composition is clearly spelled out in the Criminal Code. Violations described in other sources do not apply to the term in question. It is the Criminal Code that makes it possible to determine whether a person has committed an offense or a crime.
Public danger of various violations
One of the signs that misconduct differs from crime is the level of harm that arose from their commission. The significance of the damage indicates the degree of danger of the offense. The act does not cause critical harm to life, state interests, human health. Crime, on the contrary, does it. To eliminate dangerous consequences if it is committed is much more difficult or completely impossible (for example, to revive a person). The danger level consists of the main significant difference between a crime and an offense.
The difference in the degree of sanctions
Any misconduct must always be punished. This statement has become fundamental to the modern justice system. Punishments are imposed precisely taking into account how dangerous the offense is. It will always be proportionate. What is the difference between misconduct and crime? Types of punishment for a committed act. You will not have to spend all your life behind bars for absenteeism, and you won’t pay off the murder with a usual fine.
The difference in composition. Crime and Misconduct: Differences
Any crime includes subjective and objective parts. Their presence is required for qualification. Without the subjective side of the corpus delicti, a crime cannot be considered as such. If we consider the variety of misconduct, then there are situations that allow you to prosecute, guided only by the objective part of the violation. Consider an example. As a result of playing ball in the yard, the child does not specifically break the window of someone else's apartment. The consequence of this action is harm done to an unauthorized person. Parents will reimburse him, since the child does not have the financial ability to independently pay damages. Thus, the actual offender, that is, the subject of the offense, did not suffer any legal punishment for the broken window. Similarly, owners of movable property that caused damage (vehicles, animals, etc.) are held liable. This happens even if their master is innocent, because the subject of the offense cannot answer for him.
The punishment for the crime is personal. It is determined by the court authorized for such actions individually, in the course of studying a specific incident that has occurred. Responsibility for crimes cannot be transferred to anyone. For him, everyone is serving a sentence. No criminal law provides for any exceptions to this. This difference in composition constitutes yet another part of the answer to the question of how misconduct differs from crime.
Time difference
Murders, robberies and other criminal acts result in longer punishments than violation of any other branch of the law. Some crimes are punishable by life imprisonment. The time after which the responsibility for the act will not come, also depends on the type of offense. For misconduct, the statute of limitations is several months. In especially serious crimes, it is calculated for years. After its completion, the guilty person shall not be prosecuted for the offense by the authorized bodies. The difference in such terms is another indicator of how misconduct differs from crime.
The difference in the age of the subject of the offense
In matters of punishment, much depends on the identity of the person who committed the offense. If it is not able to understand the consequences of its actions, then the application of severe measures will only harm its psyche, and this is pointless taking into account the principle of humanity of justice, legislatively enshrined in most countries of the modern world. Awareness of guilt for any violations comes to every person with age. Young children will not receive prison sentences correctly and will not be able to perform, for example, corrective labor. Based on similar psychological characteristics of most people, age is one of the determining factors when choosing punitive measures. For crimes, it is usually 16, and in especially severe cases - 14 years. Under no circumstances can a younger offender be held criminally liable. This is an occasion and subject for very sharp discussions in the legal sphere.
Only subjects older than 16 years are subject to administrative liability. For disciplinary and civil violations it is allowed to bring in 18. Is this framework fair? Is the age of awareness of responsibility correctly defined, given the current psychological conditions for the development of youth? Similar problems concern lawyers from different countries. It is difficult to say what this reasoning will lead to, but now the age of the subject remains the most important difference between the offense and the crime.
A bit about criminal misconduct
All types of offenses existing in the current Russian legislation have already been examined above. In some countries there is also a criminal offense. For example, it is provided for by the laws of the Republic of Lithuania. How to distinguish between criminal misconduct and crime? For the first offender is not punished by sanctions affecting the restriction of freedom. The only exception is arrest. The second may involve very lengthy conclusions.
Is it necessary to introduce a criminal offense in the legal system of Russia? The most famous jurists have been discussing this for several years. Motivated arguments are given for the introduction of a criminal offense in the relevant Code or against such a measure. But a consensus among specialists has not yet been developed.