To the issue of qualification of joint participation in vandalism

Current criminal legislation considers the commission of vandalism by a group of persons (Part 2, Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) to be its defining characteristic. This form of crime is characterized by joint commission of crime by two or more persons, each of which is a subject of the corresponding crime (general or special), as well as by full or partial implementation of actus reus of a concrete corpus delicti, and ultimately, its main part - act. It is necessary to support the position of those courts, which qualify the actions of accomplices of vandalism as committed by a group of persons when accomplices are involved in acts under Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation fully or partially. In practice of criminal law application, the most complicated issue is criminal legal evaluation of actions of those accomplices of crime who render assistance to the actual perpetrator in the course of crime commission. In relation to the subject of our research, the criminal legal evaluation of securing against crime detection deserves special attention. This is caused by a broad interpretation of joint participation concerning the application of a group element of vandalism. The article gives some sentences containing a criminal legal evaluation of actions of persons, who during the commission of acts of vandalism secured the perpetrator from possible detection of crime. Such actions can be recognized as joint participation or accessory in crime. The criteria for differentiation between joint participation and complicity are formulated in Article 33 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The role of an accomplice is to promote the commission of crime, to give necessary help to the person who is going to carry out or carries out the actus reus of a concrete crime. In other words, the behavior of the accomplice lies beyond the actus reus of a crime in which he deliberately takes part together with other persons. Considering vandalism committed by a group of persons (Part 2, Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), as joint participation, we take into account only those accomplices who, being the participants of a group encroachment, carried out the actus reus of vandalism either fully or partially. Those participants who in the course of crime commission help the people to carry out the acts constituting the actus reus of corpus delicti provided for in Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation cannot be considered accomplices. Otherwise, it will be impossible to establish the difference between accomplices and those people whose actions the criminal law distinguishes from performance, giving them another criminal and legal significance, calling such persons the organizers, instigators or accomplices (Article 33 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

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