The concept and forms of guilt are one of the most important categories, which helps to determine the degree of responsibility of a person for a committed act, as well as to appoint him a fair punishment according to the norms of criminal, administrative and civil law.
Essence of guilt
According to the norms of Russian law, the main thing for applying liability measures is the position of subjective imputation.
The concept and forms of guilt in criminal law and other branches of legislation are important elements for establishing the subjective side of an act.
It is expressed in the fact that a person is held accountable solely for those actions dangerous for society (or inaction) and the consequences that have come after them, in relation to which his guilt has been established.
The concept and significance of the form of guilt lies in the fact that the correct qualification of an act as an offense allows the application of correct sanctions. For example, beliefs, thoughts, or dangerous mental states are not punishable. In addition, innocent damage is not held liable.
The concepts and forms of guilt are expressed through its definition. This is a person’s mental attitude to the action dangerous to society that he committed (or inaction), as well as to the consequences that have arisen because of this.
Signs of Guilt
They are divided into three groups. In addition to the concept, content, form and meaning of guilt, this is an important element of it:
- Intellectual signs.
- Strong-willed.
- Emotional.
Signs of an intellectual nature show those processes of cognition that occur in the psyche of the offender. In the sphere of the concept and forms of guilt, they express the person’s ability to correctly assess the specific situation in which the person finds himself, the consequences of his actions in it and their social significance.
Signs of a strong-willed type express the conscious orientation of physical and mental efforts to perform certain actions or to abstain from them, as well as the choice of a specific model of behavior.
Emotional signs play an important role as circumstances that the court takes into account when imposing an individual sentence.
The concept of guilt
This concept is considered from three sides:
- As a category denoting the subjective reality that takes place in the process of preparation and implementation of an unlawful action.
- As a mental attitude, expressing the connection of a person with an act committed by him.
- As an attitude to society and its citizens, their ideals, values, as well as the objects of the world.
Forms of guilt
In the concept of “crime” a large role is played by a combination of elements of will and consciousness, which together characterize the offender’s attitude to his act.
Russian law distinguishes between intent and negligence. If we are talking about the concept of guilt and its types in criminal law, here intentionality or its absence is indicated in the disposition of the article or implied.
Some categories of offenses imply the presence of unconditional intent (for example, robbery, rape, receiving money as a bribe, etc.). In most cases, the content of this concept is manifested in a person's prediction of the negative consequences of his actions.
The value of guilt
The meaning of the concept of guilt is as follows:
- This concept acts as the basis of the subjective type for bringing to justice, being an obligatory sign of the offense.
- It allows you to distinguish between illegal actions that have similar objective characteristics.
- It helps to establish the degree and nature of the danger of the act and its subject for society, influencing the qualification of the offense, which ultimately leads to the correct determination of the applicable sanctions.
The legal meaning of guilt forms
From a legal point of view, the concept of forms and types of guilt plays a serious role in the classification of crime:
- It allows you to limit criminal activity from non-criminal.
- Helps determine the qualifications of an act.
- Helps individualize punishment.
- Allows to differentiate types of responsibility.
- In conjunction with the degree of danger to society, it helps to classify various actions.
- It determines the establishment of conditions for sentencing in the form of restrictions on freedom of movement.
Intent and its types
The essence of the intent is the intent to commit a crime or an offense that is prohibited by relevant legislative norms. Deliberate illegal action - an act with a certain degree of public danger, aimed at infringing on the rights of other persons who are protected by law.
The concept of guilt in the form of intent according to subjective orientation is divided as follows:
- Straight.
- Indirect.
The distinction between direct intent and indirect intent is to recognize the consequences of their illegal actions and their impact on other people.
In contrast to negligence, intent of any type is a focus on the commission of an unlawful act.
The distinction between direct and indirect intent is carried out on three grounds:
- by signs;
- according to the conditions of occurrence (formation);
- according to the degree of anticipation of the onset of negative consequences.
Signs of Intent
In the concept of the form of guilt, two signs of intentional acts are distinguished: intellectual and strong-willed.
An intellectual sign of actions with direct or indirect intent is the awareness of the danger of an illegal act for society and the prediction of the possibility (inevitability) of the occurrence of negative consequences. The peculiarity of this sign is that in both cases the person understands what he is doing and what it can lead to.
The strong-willed sign of actions with direct intent is the offender’s desire for dangerous consequences for society to occur. In indirect - a person does not want their occurrence, but admits such a possibility, or is indifferent to the possibility of their occurrence.
Types of Intent
According to the conditions of occurrence, intent is divided as follows:
- Premeditated. It is expressed in the fact that the offender, having decided to commit an offense, for some time made a plan and worked it out.
- Arisen suddenly. It is expressed in the fact that the guilty person commits an offense immediately after the idea, or after a very short period of time, without thinking through the details and details.
- Affective. It is expressed in the fact that a person commits an illegal action in a state of strong emotional experience or excitement, in which the brain does not have time to fully realize the committed act.
Distinguishing guilt by degree of foresight
According to the degree of awareness of the onset of specific consequences, intent is divided into two types: definite and indefinite.
- With a certain amount of unlawful acts, they are characterized by the fact that the offender understands what specific consequences will come after he has committed illegal actions.
- Uncertain unlawful acts are characterized by the fact that a person understands that his actions will cause negative consequences, but does not fully realize which ones.
Negligence as a form of guilt
In the case when an action is carried out whose purpose is not to commit an act dangerous to society, for which administrative or criminal liability is provided, this is a reckless crime.
Negligence exists in two forms: frivolity and negligence.
- The first is expressed in the fact that a person performs a certain action, anticipating the onset of dangerous consequences for society, but arrogantly counting on their independent prevention.
- Negligence is expressed in not predicting the onset of dangerous consequences for society, although with a certain degree of prudence and attentiveness one could predict their occurrence.
To some extent, frivolity is similar to indirect intent. The difference is expressed in the volitional aspect. In the case of frivolity, a person directs his own efforts to prevent (prevent) the possible negative consequences. With an intent of an indirect nature, a person consciously admits them or is completely indifferent to the fact that they can come.
The nature of reckless crimes is generalized. That is, a person hypothetically understands that because of his non-illegal action, any negative consequences may occur that are directly related to the violation of the interests and rights of others protected by law. At the same time, a person believes that when they occur he can find a way out of the situation.
According to intellectual and volitional moments, two forms of negligence differ from each other. Of particular importance is such a distinction in official (criminal) negligence.
Since the volitional aspect consists in the need to anticipate the possibility of negative consequences with due care, prudence and caution, such a careless attitude to these circumstances is negligence.
Criteria of negligence can be subjective and objective. The first criteria are expressed in the possibility of anticipating the onset of negative consequences. Whereas objective ones are in a duty to think over the consequences of their actions.
According to the meaning of legislative norms, negligence is a combination of the concepts of “could” and “should”. If at least one of them does not take place, the action will not qualify as negligence.
In practice, there are cases of innocent harm to the interests and rights of others. Such situations are incidents. The law exempts from criminal prosecution those who have committed certain actions (inaction) if they did not have the opportunity to guess and understand the public danger of the latter.
Legislation distinguishes between two types of incidents: objective and based on the human factor:
- The first is due to the fact that a person is not aware of the possibility of dangerous consequences for society due to the circumstances of the situation.
- The second is due to the fact that the person could neither foresee nor prevent the onset of negative situations due to the fact that his psychophysiological qualities did not meet the requirements of extreme conditions or overloads of a neuropsychic nature.
Guilt in the criminal process is of great importance, since its correct qualification allows you to adequately assess the actions of a person and assign him a fair punishment.