The subjective side of the crime in criminal law is an invariably obligatory element of each offense, which is expressed in the psychic attitude of the offender to his committed act, motivation, purposefulness and emotional state. It consists of two elements: guilt (its obligatory presence) and additional, or optional (goals, emotions). If the presence of the former is necessary for qualifying an act as a crime, then others only allow qualifying, mitigating, and heavy penalties. Elements of the subjective side of the crime are listed in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, but are not completely exhaustible (due to their multifaceted mental nature).
The purpose of the subjective side of the crime
The significance of the subjective side of the crime can hardly be overestimated, since it is considered one of the four necessary elements of evidence in pre-trial investigation. Her role is as follows.
- The need to assess the act as a crime. Guilt is of fundamental fundamental importance.
- Possibilities of distinguishing various crimes.
- It makes it possible to separate crimes and other offenses (administrative, labor).
- Correctly determined content of the subjective side of the crime allows you to correctly qualify the act, determine the boundary of punishment, based on the specificity of the goal, motive or guilt.
Guilt is a fundamental part of the subjective side
Guilt can rightfully be considered one of the main fragments of the subjective side, but it does not limit it. The Criminal Code recognizes only the volitional and mental part of guilt, ignoring the emotional. This can only be understood from the point of view of the difficulties of research and determination of the real emotional situation of the criminal.
Mandatory signs of the subjective side of the crime are recorded in the criminal law of Part 1. Article. 5 of the Criminal Code, which clearly indicates the indispensability of guilt in the structure of the act.
Variety of guilt: direct intent
Intention is allowed to be considered the most dangerous form of guilt for society, because the criminal not only consciously goes for an illegal act, but also longs for the onset of negative consequences. It also happens in such varieties: direct and indirect.
Direct intent is a stable volitional action of the subject aimed at the crime, is fraught with prediction of consequences (it combines two components: strong-willed and intellectual). It does not matter for a person to be found guilty of such a crime, whether he understood that it was a crime.
During the investigation of illegal misconduct, the subjective side of the crime and the form of its commission are of great importance. If you take into account the intent, then it has an increased social danger. Some illegal actions are a priori deliberate, because the awareness of such an act, as well as its consequences, is obvious in them (theft of property with penetration into the home, robbery).
Variety of guilt: indirect intent
Indirect intent has certain differences from direct intent, but also carries a high social danger. The intellectual aspect in them is identical, because in both cases a person understands that he is committing an illegal action. The volitional component in this form of intent is explained by an indifferent attitude to the results (however, there is an understanding of their likely occurrence). The criminal directly and clearly focuses attention precisely on the goals, motives, actions, and the consequences are not a key point for him.
The investigator’s task is to accurately determine the type of intent, since the attempt is made only with direct intent. Also, the role of the subject of the offense (performer, organizer, instigator, accomplice) can be individualized due to its correct installation.
Form of guilt: criminal frivolity
The concept of the subjective side of a crime also includes cases of committing an unlawful act of negligence. A common form is criminal frivolity. This type of negligence is characterized by the fact that a person clearly understands the likelihood of negative results, but recklessly believes that they will not occur, due to their capabilities, skills, professional abilities, character traits (which are unreasonable).
In this case, an intellectual moment can be explained as a person’s understanding of the probability of the onset of negative results, and a strong-willed one as an individual’s belief in their prevention. In the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the subjective side of the crime, or rather frivolity, is not manifested in the indifferent attitude of the offender to the various consequences. The criminal does not want their offensive, believes in the success of his actions.
Form of guilt: criminal negligence
Of all the possible forms of guilt, criminal negligence is considered the least socially dangerous. This is due to the fact that the offender does not foresee the onset of negative consequences, however, due to labor or other duties, he must and can do this.
There are two key points that help qualify an act as criminal negligence. This is a duty and an opportunity. The first consists in labor, contractual and other duties that require increased attention and anticipation of all possible negative consequences from a person. Opportunity means that the subject could objectively understand that probable losses would occur.
The subjective side of the crime in criminal law is qualified by the investigator, but in practice only an experienced specialist can distinguish negligence from chance. The latter means that the person did not foresee the onset of negative consequences, which should not have happened, but they happened due to an incident.
Mixed guilt in criminal law
Although domestic criminal law establishes only classical forms of guilt, ignoring possible other heavy psychological constructions, it should be noted that in practice such options have long been investigated. One of them is mixed, double fault, which may exist in some articles of the criminal law.
The task of the investigator is, first of all, to determine his original real intent. A typical example that can be cited is the infliction of grievous bodily harm. If the person inflicted them on the victim, but he eventually died, then this crime will be considered intentional (the main action was purposeful - to mutilate the person). The investigator should also exclude the intention of the suspect to cause the victim death, rather than bodily harm. This has a fundamental difference, since these actions are covered by various elements of crime, articles, there is a difference in the severity of the punishment.
This example also requires consideration of one atypical case where the suspect’s guilt will be determined precisely through the prism of the victim’s health. If one person inflicted grievous bodily harm to another, which led to death, a forensic medical examination of the corpse is mandatory. Since the suspect could really cause the victim only certain injuries (not wanting to die at the same time), but the latter died due to a state of health, certain characteristics of the body that were not known to the offender. In this case, this act will be qualified precisely as inflicting grievous bodily harm (without a qualifying sign - causing death).
Optional elements of the subjective side
Signs of the subjective side of the crime are not only fault, but also other complex psychophysical processes that require installation at the stage of pre-trial investigation.
At first glance, only guilt is needed to convict the offender. However, such concepts as “motive”, “goal” and “emotional state” play an important role in each crime, regardless of whether they are indicated in the disposition of the norm or not. Motiveless actions cannot entail the commission of a crime (derived from general psychological knowledge).
The correct definition of such a category as optional features of the subjective side of the crime helps to find out not only superficial obvious circumstances of the case, but also to deeply examine the identity of the offender. Such activities of the investigator are also associated with criminology (the science of the identity of the offender).
Motive as an optional element of the subjective side of the crime
The concept of the subjective side of a crime does not include such an additional (optional) attribute as a motive. This can be attributed to the psychological nature of this concept.
Motives of criminal behavior - a combination of reasons, motivations, internal beliefs that make a person want to satisfy his needs in a criminal way. They are closely related to the needs, education, character, moral qualities of the individual.
The subjective side of a crime in criminal law cannot exist without concepts borrowed from philosophy, psychology and logic. The motive is a dynamic psychological complex of incentive reactions that cause the need to meet needs. It cannot be torn off from the outside world, since motivation is based on the interaction of specific situations, political events, human relations, and the social level of society.
Types of motives in criminal law
All optional features of the subjective side of the crime are no less important than guilt. Their varieties also play an important role, which show the danger of the criminal, his moral attitudes and antisocial mood. The simplest classification of motives was borrowed precisely from the science of psychology and adapted to criminology.
- Negative motives (have an asocial coloring): selfishness, anger, self-interest, revenge, hatred, envy and many others. In many cases, they serve as aggravating circumstances.
- Neutral motives: unemployment, apathy, boredom.
- Positive motives: altruism, kindness. They do not exclude criminal liability, but mitigate the punishment. An example of a specific positive motive can be given in the case of euthanasia: a nurse who wants to ease the pain and pain of the patient makes him an injection of a substance that has a fatal effect on the body. The crime is committed, albeit with good intentions.
Goal as part of the subjective side
If the motive can answer the question of why a person commits a crime, then the goal gives an answer to the question of why he commits it. The subjective side of the crime is characterized by various psychological aspects, however, the goal plays an important role in the study of precisely criminal behavior, deviance.
A person sets a goal before any action is taken, and crime is no exception. However, it should be noted that it can exist only in its deliberate forms. This statement can be gleaned from logic, since negligence loses its essence when setting a goal to commit an illegal action.
The subjective side of the crime in criminal law, namely the purpose, to qualify the article and to convict the offense is sometimes decisive. For example, some goals of a crime can aggravate punishment: self-interest, revenge, satisfaction of sexual needs, envy, concealment of another crime or facilitation of its commission.
The value of the goal as part of the subjective side of the crime
A goal by its nature is not a legal category, but very often criminal law (the subjective side of a crime) uses it as a qualifying factor. Its significance lies in the points described below.
- The presence of a special purpose in committing a crime may determine whether the act is socially dangerous or not (part 1 of article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
- The goal may be a qualifying (usually aggravating) circumstance (part 1 of article 63 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Emotional state - part of the subjective side of the crime
Emotions are short-term human reactions to external and internal factors that are reflected in actions and behavior. They do not reflect objective reality, but show subjectivity (a set of views, thoughts). The subject and the subjective side of the crime are inseparable from each other, since the first determines the latter (the impossibility of existence without it) by way of thinking, reactions, social relations.
The state of affect in the procedural aspect plays an important role among other emotions. Art. 104 and Art. 110 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establish special provisions on the commission of a crime during strong emotional emotions and upheavals. The affect in these articles may be caused by physical or mental violence by the victim.
Case or chance
Each sphere of human life includes a variety of incidental circumstances, criminal law is not an exception (the subjective side of the crime in particular). The described provisions are regulated by part 1 and part 2 of article 28 of the Criminal Code. If a person did not understand or could not understand that he was committing an illegal act, did not foresee and could not do this in this situation, then he is considered innocent.
Presumption of innocence in criminal law
This provision is democratic, humane and legal, since a person cannot be considered a criminal until proven otherwise. Its essence is manifested precisely in the fault, which is included in the content of the concept of "subjective side of the crime." Motive, goal and other factors do not play a role due to its secondary and complexity qualifications.
A person can be recognized as a criminal by a single independent state body - the court. The competence of other individuals and structures is manifested in facilitating the collection of evidence. To prove the guilt of the subject is possible only if there is a series of indisputable, complete, sufficient and independent evidence.
Mandatory signs of the subjective side of the crime - this is the first thing that needs to be investigated in the course of the case, since determining the place, time, method and other minor components without establishing guilt only leads to a prolongation of the criminal process. During the pre-trial investigation, it is forbidden to call the suspect a criminal. Violation of this principle is a failure to comply with the law on the publicity and immediacy of the trial.
The significance of the subjective side of the crime lies in many of the provisions that have been considered previously. Summarize them again.
- It is the subjective side of the crime that shows the psychological side of the crime, which really requires detailed investigation. She can also help make a psychological portrait of the offender. Very often, an accurate determination of the psychological specific character traits of the offender suggested a possible post-prison behavior, relapse, correction.
- The subjective aspect of the offense is the most important part of the investigation, without which it is impossible to qualify any act as a crime. If other branches of law provide for punishment without fault, then this is prohibited in criminal law.
- The study of the subjective moment of the crime requires high competence, education from law enforcement officials. If objective moments can be collected at the first inspection of the scene, then psychological characteristics require various interrogations, syntheses, examinations, and unspoken investigative actions.
The subjective side of a criminal offense is a real picture of the psychological connections of the crime. It helps to solve the internal features, causes and conditions for the commission of such an act, and therefore is of great importance in the criminal process.