"All rise, the court is in session!". How many times have many heard this loud and terrible for someone phrase, cruelly dividing the life of a person or even a group of people into two halves: before the sentencing and after. Before and after criminal responsibility. Before being sent to places of detention and after …
What is criminal liability
Legal scholars argue that the legal concept of "criminal responsibility" is one of the foundations on which all criminal law is based.
It is no coincidence that in the main legal document - the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - it is one of the most popular. And it is mentioned, in a different sense and in a variety of combinations, more than 80 times.
Scatter of opinions
The most surprising thing in this case is the fact that the Russian legislator has not yet settled on any one, but specific definition of criminal liability. Thus, allowing for a fairly broad interpretation of such an important term for justice. Here are just a few examples of how experts interpret the concept of "criminal responsibility":
“Type of legal responsibility. The main content is punitive measures applied by the state to a citizen in connection with the commission of a crime."
“A form of negative reaction of society to behavior that is illegal. It is applied in relation to a person who has committed a crime, condemning him to physical, property and moral deprivation. The main goal is to prevent the commission of new crimes."
"The duty of the offender who has violated the law to answer to the state for the crime committed."
“Negative assessment (conviction, recognition of a crime) of a socially dangerous act and censure of the person who committed it, expressed in the verdict of the court, which came into force”.
Criminal liability is a unique concept. After all, neither the Criminal Code nor any other legal document has a clear definition of this type of responsibility. Moreover, it is still the subject of scientific controversy and discussion.
In the dock - teenager
The minimum age from which one can be held criminally liable in Russia is 16 years. Unfortunately, juvenile delinquency is vast and multifaceted. And some minors are capable of even the most cruel and sophisticated offenses - murder, rape, theft, including drugs, robbery, robbery, robbery, extortion, car theft and much more. So, for all these grave crimes, criminal responsibility in the Russian Federation comes from the age of 14.
Most of the 14-15-year-old teenagers who have embarked on the criminal path are for some reason convinced that, due to their age, they will not end up in the dock even if such grave crimes as robbery or even murder are committed.
When does criminal responsibility arise?
The law states: the only ground for the occurrence of this type of liability is the corpus delicti of any crime provided for by the Criminal Code. And entailing not only a formal conviction, but also a compulsory serving of punishment in a correctional institution.
