The social nature of crimes in criminal law

Crime acts as one of the main categories in criminal law. To prevent misconduct of behavioral acts and fulfill the tasks established by law, the Criminal Code defines a list of acts that threaten the individual, the state, and society.

The historical genesis of the crime and its social nature

In domestic legal journals, the opinion that the illegal act as an independent model of punishable behavior of the subjects arose as a result of the split of the society into separate classes was still a priority. This position was justified by the fact that the concept and social nature of the crime reflects a danger only for the dominant category of citizens. It was believed that illegal behavior violates the conditions for the normal existence of the priority class.

The socio-historical nature of the crime is due to the fact that the model itself appears at a certain stage of social development. When the collective-economic formations are changed, its content is adjusted depending on the circumstances within which the state is being formed and the tasks assigned to it are realized. These conditions in different time intervals determine the different level of danger of specific acts. In the years of the Soviet Union, the view that in the society the socio-historical nature of the crime should not be characterized as classically dangerous was categorically rejected. This was due to the assumption of incorrect conclusions. It was believed that the concept of "social nature and signs of crime" implies a danger solely for class interests. Many authors, however, note that this statement is somewhat exaggerated. The origins of this position are conditioned by ideological notions of class nature in general.

The social nature of the crime (briefly)

First of all, it is engendered by social relations and relationships in which people live and develop. This, in turn, indicates that the directly volitional act of a particular subject is the cause of misconduct. The will is the ability of a person to overcome obstacles, to react to the influence of external factors. It allows you to subordinate feelings to the mind. The social nature of crimes is manifested in the impact on the surrounding personality of reality, that is, in the arising consequences. Due to the fact that misconduct leads to harm to public and individual interests, which are protected by law, it is always evaluated more negatively in legal terms than other violations. The social and legal nature of the crime presupposes a conflict between the collective and the individual. Public danger is determined directly by its depth, and therefore requires the use of legal response measures to eliminate it.

Prerequisites

The social nature of crime is associated with several factors. It is generated by moral, economic, psychological contradictions. Circumstances and reasons for the criminalization of behavior go beyond the criminal law subject. Along with this, models of illegal behavior are determined on the basis of studying existing relationships in society. Of these, in the process of research, those that pose a danger stand out. The qualitative and quantitative characteristics of criminalization affect the policy of the state in the fight against this phenomenon. It should be noted that the social nature of crimes can be studied isolated within a particular social phenomenon only within certain limits. In this case, the analysis will act as one of the methodological options. This technique carries substantial, but limited knowledge.

Other position

The social nature of crimes can be studied within the political, cultural, economic, social characteristics of the region and the country. The analysis is also associated with less dangerous violations and negative deviations. The data of judicial, criminal statistics, respectively, are compared with other information, including indicators of the state of social control, the work of law enforcement agencies.

Population data

The social nature of the crime in criminal law is examined through the analysis of certain groups:

1. By sex, since it is associated with various kinds of public functions of citizens, features of their status and behavior. So, for example, for women there is less violent criminal activity. As a consequence, in violent settlements, where fewer men live, violent acts occur less often.

2. By age, because for each time interval in a person's life, certain forms of criminal activity are characteristic. For example, younger people in most cases commit looting, rape, robbery, hooliganism. People over the age of 50 are more inclined to economic crimes, illegal acts with the use of official position and so on.

Nationality

Each nation has its own customs, foundations. People, brought up in some traditions, demonstrate their manifestation on the grounds that certain actions would not cause condemnation from relatives, would not serve as an exclusion from their habitual environment. Forms of criminal behavioral acts may be associated with negative phenomena prevalent in a particular national area.

Other criteria

They include:

1. Worship. Essential criminological significance is, for example, the fact that Muslims are not inclined to drink alcohol. This means that crime against the background of drunkenness in the region will not have a high index.

2. Marital status. For the new cities in Siberia in its time was characterized by crime, characteristic of youth and minors. In this case, an important indicator is the number of such citizens, including children who live in incomplete families, only with parents or with them, and with grandparents. In the latter there is more organized control.

The economic aspect

The social nature of the essence of the object of crime is closely connected with it . In the study of criminalization, there are moments such as:

1. Correlation of organizations and enterprises of various specializations.
2. Socially-professional staff of citizens (workers of science, culture, health, industry, transport and so on).
3. Population structure by incoming income and expenditure. This takes into account the sources of profit, the size and nature of costs (for the maintenance of disabled people, the upbringing of children, entrepreneurship, investment, etc.). In addition, the presence and number of homeless citizens and persons who do not have a permanent source of income are taken into account.
4. Correlation of organizations and enterprises in different forms of ownership and organizational-legal type.
5. Specificity of formation and use of working resources of the region. Here we take into account the availability of our own production, involvement of seasonal teams, indicators of overt and covert unemployment, migration flows.
6. Provision of necessary needs, which are of paramount importance for survival and reproduction.

The specifics of the activities of enterprises that operate in a particular region have an impact on the characteristics of criminalization. In particular, the violation of the order of delivery of precious metals and stones to the state is more common where it is extracted. Illegal business predominantly takes place with the predominance of private commercial structures on the territory.

Political aspect

From this position, the following factors are subject to investigation:

1. Presence / absence of sharp differences in the political interests of particular groups of the population, ways of resolving them. For example, with the escalation of the contradictions between the poor and the rich, riots, arson of mansions, extortion can arise.
2. What political movements and parties operate in the region, what is the order of their formation, composition, and the specifics of their interaction.
3. How does local power ensure satisfaction of the civil interest of the population.
4. How is the formation of administrative structures, whether there are violations of electoral and other political rights of people.
5. Features of building relations with federal bodies, regional institutions and local self-government.

The influence of culture

The socio-cultural aspect of studying crime is connected with the study of the following factors:

1. The number and structure of institutions, the nature and extent of coverage of the interests of the population.
2. Customs, stereotypes, traditions, established methods of resolving conflict and problem situations.
3. The level of professional and educational training of the population.
4. Features of interests and needs of citizens in the spiritual sphere.

The work of sports, cultural institutions has an impact on the nature of leisure. This is particularly evident in settlements where youth predominate. In turn, this affects the indicators of crime in the field of leisure (for example, thefts are committed for appropriating funds to the casino). The educational level determines not so much a character as a form of criminal behavior. For example, more intellectually developed persons more often commit illegal actions in the economic sphere.

Conclusion

The statistical picture depends to a large extent on changes in criminal law. In this regard, it is necessary to always determine whether the increase in criminal acts is related to criminalization, and the decrease - with decriminalization. There is another important factor. It concerns the legal culture, public opinion of the population about the fight against crime. If citizens do not seek to cooperate with law enforcement agencies, they will only in exceptional cases report criminal facts. In such situations, the latency (latency) of crime is very high.