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 ofthe 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 significanceof bringing the victim in a helpless state in case of crime commission; the value of the age of thevictim; the sleep state as a characteristic of helplessness. There is no common legal definition ofhelplessness and its characteristic which can be used to all crimes including this term. The helplessstate 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 andcrimes committed against the sexual inviolability of minors» and Resolution of Plenum of SupremeCourt of the Russian Federation «On application by courts of the Russian Federation of Criminal codein a case of murder». However, the helpless of a victim is an evaluative characteristic. Despite the factthat the term «helpless state of the victim» is identical in all sections of Criminal code, the content ofthe 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 necessityof giving detailed explanations of concepts and signs of helpless state of a victim. There are two waysto 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 thecharacteristic of helpless state of a victim will help to avoid difficulties in prosecution. The problemseems important, because we are talking about the crimes with aggravation, and the punishment forsuch crimes is much higher.