On the interpretation of qualifying elements of deliberate property destruction or damage

Analysis of judicial practice shows that the law enforcer finds it difficult to interpret the qualifying elements of deliberate property destruction or damage. It is connected with the legal definition of deliberate property destruction or damage. Part 1 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation determines criminal responsibility for deliberate property destruction or damage providing the fact that these actions caused extensive damage. Part 2 of Article 167 provides responsibility for the same actions committed with a hooligan intention by arson, explosion or another common dangerous method, or involved death out of negligence or other serious injuries. Within this framework, a lot of experts raise the question whether extensive damage is a compulsive feature for classification of the crime provided for by Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation or it is enough to determine existence of the crime in terms of deliberate property destruction or damage together with identified features. There is no absolute answer to this question in judicial practice or in the science of criminal law. There are authors who consider that qualifying elements of deliberate property destruction or damage are characterized by a high level of social danger in consequence of the method of committing this crime or possibility to inflict serious consequences. That is why extensive damage is not required for the determination of the nature of the crime under Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The others consider that extensive damage is a compulsive consequence of committing deliberate property destruction or damage, which is necessary to be identified for the determination of the nature of the crime. It seems that extensive damage is a compulsive feature of the main and additional elements of the crime provided for by Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Extensive damage is a crime formative feature which converses deliberate property destruction or damage into a crime. Whereas property destruction or damage is a crime against property and does not intend to get benefit, this crime should primarily damage ownership property. If after committing this crime property was not damaged or destroyed beyond reasonable control of the guilty person or property was damaged or destroyed, but it did not involve infliction of a serious injury, this crime should be qualified as an attempted crime according to the intention of the criminal provided for by Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Methods, motives or serious injuries in qualifying elements of property destruction or damage prove the high level of the social danger of the crime; these facts are not the consequences which can influence the classification of this crime as finished.

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