Criminal legal means against combating group crimes

Group criminality as a criminological phenomenon comprises group crimes. And a group crime is any interaction of several individuals, the content of which is a joint criminal activity. Such activities may consist not only of acts assessed by criminal law as crimes but of actions, which do not receive such an assessment. In the current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the commission of a crime by a group of persons is classified as complicity in a crime. And members of the group, under Part 1, Article 35 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, are called perpetrators. The analysis of the decisions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation enables us to speak about an expanded interpretation of the commission of a crime by a group of persons that contradicts the current legislation. The authors propose a different approach to the consideration of this problem. The signs of a group crime in a criminological sense are, first, the involvement of several individuals in the criminal encroachment. Second, all members in a group crime must have a common group goal. Third, the interaction of members in a group crime should find its expression in the separation of functions. Fourth, group crime is characterized by a negative consequence for all members of the group. It is possible to distinguish the following criminal law norms that characterize the interaction of several individuals as a group crime, and serve as the means of countering group crime: 1. Norms providing for the participation of several persons in performing a specific element of crime, assessed by criminal law as complicity in a crime. 2. Norms providing for the actual participation in performing a specific element of crime together with persons brought to criminal responsibility, those persons whose actions are not criminal because of the absence of signs of the subject of the crime (failure to reach the age of criminal responsibility or insanity). 3. Norms providing for the actual participation of several persons in the performance not of an act, but in the formation with a certain person who commits a crime, of other mandatory elements of the objective side of the crime as group formations. 4. Norms providing for the criminal participation of some persons in the negative activities of other persons after the commission of the crime, aimed at creating obstacles to the disclosure of crimes committed by the latter and bringing these persons to criminal responsibility. To sum up, we can note that our conclusions are not indisputable, in many respects, they are staged in nature and need additional substantiation. Contribution of the authors: the authors contributed equally to this article. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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