Prospects of Compensation for Damage Caused to Victims by a Crime

The topic of the research is the effectiveness of the constitutional right of a person to compensation for the harm caused by a crime. In Russian law enforcement practice, compensation to victims for harm is low (27%), and this compensation is provided for mainly by the preliminary investigation bodies. Judges do nothing in this situation; the institution executing the guilty verdict is not able to provide the convict's paying off of the remaining share of such a compensation. The article solves the following tasks: updates reasons of the low share of compensation for harm to victims; establishes procedural conditions for the execution of the judge's decision on measures to ensure reparation to the victim; proves the necessity of transformation of judge's procedural right to the procedural duty of taking measures for ensuring compensation for the harm caused by the crime; shows the necessity of granting more rights to institutions executing punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty in order to provide compensation to the victim. The research uses general scientific methods of cognition: formal logical, statistical, comparative legal, scientific forecasting, analysis, as well as specific scientific methods: conversation, external observation, questioning, expert evaluation method. The conclusions of the study the author conducted in 2015-2019 in different subjects of the Russian Federation (Krasnodar Krai, Moscow, Voronezh, Ryazan, Samara, Chelyabinsk Oblast) are based on the results of the study of materials of criminal cases of crimes in which victims filed civil suits, interviews with victims, interviews with judges considering criminal cases in the first instance, questioning of employees of institutions executing criminal penalties. The conclusions are as following. (1) Compensation to victims for the harm caused by crimes in reasonable time and in the fullest extent in the modern period is unpromising. (2) The correction of the erroneous position of the victim on the admissibility of their procedural inaction in deciding on compensation for the harm caused by the crime will be facilitated by the consolidation, in the form of an independent legal norm, of the victim's right to petition the investigator, the inquirer, the court to take measures to ensure compensation for the harm caused by the crime. (3) Imposition of the procedural obligation to take measures to ensure compensation for harm to the victim in the criminal case received by the court on the judge will expand the procedural guarantees of the right of the victim to compensation for harm. (4) Improvement of the prospects of victims for compensation for harm caused by crimes will grant penitentiary institutions the right to seize funds from the personal accounts of the convicted.

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