The conceptual apparatus of modern legal science is highly developed. For the purposes of classifying offenses in civil, criminal and administrative law, whole categories of concepts with a distinct nature of acts have been introduced, which make it possible to distinguish, for example, a crime from an administrative offense.
A crime is defined as an act (action and / or inaction) that is dangerous to public life, which is prohibited under the criminal code. The Code prescribes not only all punishments for offenses committed by individuals or a group of persons, but also clear classifying signs of an act, as well as mitigating and aggravating circumstances that allow the system of punishments to be applied variably. An important difference between a crime and an uncriminal act is the presence of a person's guilt. Guilt is a person's subjective attitude to what is perfect or conceived, awareness and moral assessment of one's own actions. The concept of guilt is one of the most complex in criminology, but it is precisely this that is the key among other signs of a crime.
Today, all actions of a criminal nature are divided into several categories. Their division into types occurs on the basis of the severity of the damage inflicted on a person or society.
Law violation
Crimes are against the law. Police officers have to deal with criminal acts of varying severity. These include acts of a criminal nature:
- against the person without harm to health, such acts of small gravity are also called, - medium severity, - grave, - especially grave.
In the Western classification, crimes are defined as willful, premeditated and unintentional.
Classification and punishment
Minor offenses are punishable by conditional punishment, forced labor, or a term of imprisonment of no more than 2 years. Most often we are talking about acts committed through negligence. Crimes of average gravity are intentional and are punishable by a maximum of 5 years in prison, although a suspended sentence may also be imposed at the discretion of the court.
Criminals serving sentences for these types of crimes often manage to be released earlier than the appointed time - they enjoy the right to parole, and also fall under amnesty.
Serious crimes in the modern world are not rare. They are deliberate offenses and are punishable by up to ten years' imprisonment. At the discretion of the court, a coercive measure in the form of restriction of freedom may be executed in a colony-settlement, prison or special-purpose correctional institution. Especially grave crimes belong to the most difficult category, the punishments for them are the most severe. Up to the highest measure, which, however, in the Russian Federation is under a moratorium, giving criminals the hope of getting freedom.
