Collisions in Legal Interpreting the Victim Helplessness Signs in Different Crimes
Abstract
The article analyses the concept of the helpless state of a victim with regard to various sections of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, reveals differences in interpretation of the same term in judicial practice, difficulties in the application of criminal law. The author deals with the significance of bringing the victim in a helpless state in case of crime commission; the value of the age of the victim; the sleep state as a characteristic of helplessness. There is no common legal definition of helplessness and its characteristic which can be used to all crimes including this term. The helpless state of the victim is described in Resolution of Plenum of Supreme Court of the Russian Federation «On application by courts of the Russian Federation of Criminal code in a case of sexual crimes and crimes committed against the sexual inviolability of minors» and Resolution of Plenum of Supreme Court of the Russian Federation «On application by courts of the Russian Federation of Criminal code in a case of murder». However, the helpless of a victim is an evaluative characteristic. Despite the fact that the term «helpless state of the victim» is identical in all sections of Criminal code, the content of the term differs significantly. It could be seen in a judicial practice. To avoid misinterpretation of law, to establish a uniformity of judicial practice the author comes to the conclusion about the necessity of giving detailed explanations of concepts and signs of helpless state of a victim. There are two ways to solve the problem: to make the term common to the whole Criminal code of the Russian Federation, or to use different terminology in different sections. These changes in the interpretation of the characteristic of helpless state of a victim will help to avoid difficulties in prosecution. The problem seems important, because we are talking about the crimes with aggravation, and the punishment for such crimes is much higher.
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