Punishment for murder of a newborn child by mother

The analysis of sanctions under Article 106 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Murder of a newborn child by mother"), of the punishments for this crime, simple murder and murder of a juvenile ( Item "в", Part 2, Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) gives the grounds to believe that modern legislators' approach to the degree of public danger of the act under consideration is not correct. The sanction of Article 106 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (CC of RF) contains three types of punishment - restriction of freedom, forced labor and imprisonment, and the latter cannot be imposed for a term of more than five years. The study of 92 sentences according to Article 106 of the CC of RF showed that though imprisonment rates 82,61% among the imposed sentences, over a half of guilty persons are convicted without serving their sentences, and the average term of imprisonment is 2,03 years. In comparison with the sentences passed for similar murders during the period of action of the Criminal Code of RSFSR 1960, the term was almost halved. The data of judicial statistics also confirms lenient sentencing practice under Article 106 of the CC of RF: in 2011-2015 less than a half of guilty persons (47, 87%) were sentenced to a real imprisonment term and the specific weight of those sentenced to real imprisonment for the term of over two years made only 13, 47%. Dynamics of the average term of imprisonment for murder of a newborn child by mother and for simple murder by reference to the periods of action of the Criminal Code of RSFSR 1960 and the CC of RF is multidirectional, the gap between the specified terms increases. If during the action of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR the average term of imprisonment for infanticide was 1,6 times less than the average term of imprisonment for other simple murders, but now it is already 4 times less than the average sentence imposed for a simple murder. When pointing out an exclusive corpus delicti of murder of the newborn child by mother in the CC of RF, legislators mainly took into account a special mental condition of the woman at the time of commission of this crime. However, the wording of disposition of Article 106 of the CC of RF enables us to refer to exclusive murders not only cases of commission of crimes by the woman who is in a special mental state and with suddenly arisen intent, but also intentional murders, and crimes during the commission of which the woman had no mental disorder. When investigating the circumstances of commission of infanticides reflected in sentences of the courts, it has been established that the special mental condition of the woman at the time of commission of crime caused by the mental disorder, which is not excluding sanity or influence of a psycho injuring situation, took place only in isolated cases (5 murders of 92). Other crimes qualified under Article 106 of the CC of RF had the public danger, which considerably exceeded the one provided for in Article 106 of the CC of RF. In this case, the proposal of experts to reduce a circle of murders of the newborn child by mother forming an exclusive corpus delicti, to crimes committed by the woman in a special mental state deserve attention.

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