Today, law is a key regulator of public relations throughout the world. It has penetrated absolutely all existing sectors of human activity. If you pay attention, then a trivial purchase in a store is a classic example of a contract of sale, regulated by the civil law industry. You can highlight a large number of such points. All of them say that law has exceptional effectiveness in the process of regulating public relations. For many centuries, it competed with other coordinators, such as violence and religion. But in the process of theoretical development, lawyers realized that there is no better law than regulators of society. Only it is able to organize society most effectively.
However, law regulates not only the legal sphere of human life. It also affects relationships that go beyond routine. These include offenses, that is, intentional disobedience to the existing legal regime. Moreover, this category is divided into ordinary offenses and crimes that have the highest level of public danger. The latter category is characterized by the presence of its own structure, one of the main elements of which is intent.
What are crimes?
Before considering the types of intent in criminal law, it is necessary to understand the category of which it is a part. That is a crime. The concept of this category has been formed over many centuries by practicing lawyers around the world. Initially, a clear delineation of crimes and ordinary offenses did not exist. But over time, it became clear that the lack of theoretical development does not allow the effective use of the institution of punishment.
This led to the creation of a crime category. Today it occupies a key position in the entire criminal law industry. According to the most classical theory, a crime is a subspecies of an offense that has the highest degree of public danger. The fact of a crime gives the state the right to apply to the culprit measures of special legal liability - criminal.
Key category features
Like many legal phenomena, a criminal offense has characteristic features that explain its features. In the legal system of the Russian Federation, the category is determined by the following points:
- criminal act;
- guilty;
- danger to society;
- criminal wrongfulness.
Thus, according to key features, a crime is not a punitive offense that harms one or a limited number of subjects, but a dangerous act that directly encroaches on the interests of the whole society.
Category Composition
Types of intent in criminal law - this is a direct part of the crime. This phenomenon is a structure typical of an offense, the existence of which allows applying the norms of the institution of responsibility. In other words, the corpus delicti is its internal structure. According to the classical criminal law theory, its elements include the subject, object, subjective and objective side. Each element is characterized by its own specificity. However, in the context of this article we are exclusively interested in the subjective side, because it is within the framework of it that we will consider key types of intent.
The concept and structure of the subjective side of the crime
The commission of a socially dangerous act is not only the physical activity of a particular individual. This process is a very complex structure, an indispensable part of which is the mental work of the perpetrator. That is, we are talking about the attitude of the criminal to the act committed by him. This is precisely the characteristic of a crime that is given by its subjective side. In other words, it reflects the mental state of a person at the time of the commission of a specific act. The subjective side is divided into several interconnected elements. The main one is guilt, and the additional ones are motive, purpose, etc. The first category reflects a person’s attitude to his actions and all the ensuing consequences. It is in the structure of guilt that intent exists. It has its own concept and other characteristic features.
Criminal intent: concept
So, we come to the topic of this article. It should be noted that the concept, features and types of intent are governed by the provisions of Article 25 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This norm establishes an intentional form of guilt. In law enforcement practice, intent is 90% more likely than negligence, which is also a form of guilt.
According to article 25, intent is an awareness by the criminal of the essence of his activity, an awareness of the possible consequences. In addition, this category also includes the fact that there is a will, which is directed to committing an act. However, there are a large number of life situations in which crimes can be carried out. Therefore, the legislator allows the existence of several types of intent. Some are fixed directly in the norms of federal law, others are deduced by legal theorists.
Types of intent on the Criminal Code
Of course, each legal category has certain theoretical branches. Intent in this case is no exception. Article 25 presents its main types. It should be noted that there are also theoretical developments affecting this issue. But the types of intent, in accordance with Art. 25 of the Criminal Code, are divided into two main categories. They include: intent direct and indirect. In both cases, the legislator provides a detailed description of both points. Their normative fixation makes it possible to use different types of intent for the legal characterization of guilt in law enforcement practice.
Direct intent
In most cases, criminals are aware of the destructiveness of their actions and wish the appearance of certain consequences. Therefore, direct intention is a common occurrence. Speaking in a purely scientific language, this form of guilt implies a person’s awareness of the social danger of their actions and the desire for negative moments to occur. In this context, the intellectual and volitional aspects of the process of committing a crime converge. Direct intention will exist in those cases when a person really understands all aspects and features of the damage done to society.
In some cases, categories include the need for awareness of wrongfulness in the structure of the intellectual moment. However, this moment really takes place only in cases where the recognition of wrongfulness is expressly provided for in the article of criminal law.
As for the negative consequences, they are manifested in the offender's desire to achieve a certain result. This moment is another mandatory feature of direct intent. After all, he explains the fact that a person performs specific actions to obtain certain benefits.
Indirect intent
In law enforcement practice there are situations when a person’s awareness of his actions was not entirely complete. Such moments have a single name - indirect intent. In this case, the offender, again, is aware of the negativity, wrongfulness and social danger of his actions, but the consequences are neglected. As a rule, the perpetrators in this case only admit the possibility of any outcome. In other words, indirect intent is a category in which a person does not realize the full breadth of the damage he inflicted on public relations, but the very essence of the deed is well known to him.
In criminal law theory, such a moment is called a conscious assumption. It is explained quite simply: the person at the time of certain actions expects that the negative consequences will be somehow prevented. For this reason, the offender does not take absolutely no means to avert the onset of a negative outcome.
Other types of categories
Of course, the legislative norm enshrined in article 25 is not the only source of criminal law science. Nevertheless, the types of intent enshrined in it and their legal significance are the basis of law enforcement practice. However, in theory, there are other classifications of the categories presented in the article, which also have a right to exist. Of course, not all of them are literate and thoroughly thought out, but their presence testifies to the work done in this direction.
Types of intent on the degree of certainty
Classifications not mentioned in Article 25 of the mentioned category cannot be applied in law enforcement practice. However, they play a large role in the theoretical development of the problem. Therefore, other types of intent are distinguished than in the norm of Article 25. Quite popular today is the classification according to the degree of specification. According to this theory, scientists distinguish:
- concretized intent;
- intent is not specified.
Both species are endowed with their own characteristics that characterize their legal nature and right to exist. Thus, in order to understand their difference from other types of intent, it is necessary to consider a specific and non-specific type separately.
What is concretized intent?
The first type of category, according to the degree of certainty, indicates the fact that the offender has clearly set goals. In other words, a person commits a criminal act, realizes its danger, and also wants specific consequences. That is, in this case, a person completely processes in his head not only the moment of the crime, but also further events that may appear. In this case, intent is also considered concretized, in which a person admits the occurrence of several interrelated consequences. In this case, the category will be called "alternative", because the offender wants the onset of one of the scenarios.
Undefined Intent Type
The second type is called not specified. Based on the concept itself, it can be concluded that intent implies a certain uncertainty or unwillingness to recognize the negative consequences. In other words, the offender deliberately commits some action, realizing his social danger. However, he does not set specific goals at the time of the implementation of the plan. A similar type of intent can be found in ongoing crimes. For example, tax evasion is rarely carried out for specific purposes. Basically, a person simply does not want to give his personal funds to the state. A definite, hidden goal is present here, but it is not specified.
Determination of intent in other states
It should be noted that the intent of the crime is a compulsory category of socially dangerous acts in the legal branches of other states. But in other countries, the format of the category is slightly different from the Russian one. Today's interpretation of intent in the Russian Federation was developed back in Soviet times. It implies the presence of awareness of the social danger of the act. If we talk about intent in other states, then the question of public danger is not raised there at all. Instead, foreign lawyers are looking for awareness of the wrongfulness of the act. In domestic criminal law, a similar state of affairs also took place. However, in the 1920s, wrongfulness was completely supplanted by a different, modern structural element of intent. Good or bad, it's hard to say. The main thing is that the modern interpretation of intent could be applicable in the practical activities of representatives of law enforcement bodies of the Russian Federation.
Conclusion
So, we examined the concept and types of intent that exist today in the criminal legislation of Russia. It should be noted that the category presented in the article is the subject of scientific debate by most modern scientists. In their work, they develop more recent and effective law enforcement structures. Therefore, one can only hope that in the future the legislator will legalize other types of intent that did not exist in the criminal law before, thereby expanding the legal capabilities of legalists.