Optional signs of the object of a crime: place in the criminal act

Abstract

The work presents some judgments about the place of optional features of the object of the crime in the criminal offense. The author of the work has made an attempt to substantiate the correctness of the existing doctrine about the signs of the object of a crime, as well as to present additional novelties that develop the corresponding doctrinal provisions. The work argues that the structure of the object of a crime includes mandatory and optional features. Specific social relations protected by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are mandatory. When considered in this light, criminal legislation is presented as a legal means aimed at protecting and protecting such social relations, including their optional components - the victim and the subject of the crime. If the latter are designated in the disposition of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, they are hierarchically equated with social relations, transforming into mandatory features. In addition, the author concludes that the subject of the crime and the victim of the crime, within the framework of constructing the offense, are presented in the form of the substance of social relations protected by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. If the designated categories are constituent features, they are endowed with certain characteristics (properties, qualities). By developing the corresponding doctrinal provisions, the optional characteristics of the object of a crime can be systematized according to certain characteristics (qualities, properties) and types (groups). The article also argues that the subject of a crime can act as a constituent element of a crime only when it is collectively endowed with physical, economic, social and legal characteristics. The author’s analysis of the structure of the object of the crime as an element of the crime allowed us to conclude that the unlawful and immoral act and (or) behavior of the victim does not belong to the characteristics of the victim, since they act as such for the objective side of the criminal offense.