The threat of murder or causing serious harm to health: the structure and specificity

It is well known that the Special Part of the Russian Criminal Code begins with Article 105 "Murder". In turn, is it considered a crime to be threatened with murder or causing serious harm to health? Yes, of course, but it is necessary to be able to distinguish a criminal offense from empty talk.

The objective side

The object of the meaning of the 119th article of the Criminal Code - the right to live, as well as the right to health, they belong to every person, regardless of the circumstances.

The objective side consists in the detection of intent, respectively, either to kill, or to inflict severe but not insignificant harm to health. Determining the importance attached to the method of committing a crime, it is even registered in the title of the article. In criminal law, the threat is the obvious intention to commit a worded action - deprivation of life or harm. It does not matter which method the criminal chose to formulate the threat. This can be an oral statement, a written message, a phone call and even a telegram. It is not even necessary to transfer the message directly to a potential victim, it is enough to transfer it to third parties who will have to report the fact of threat to the victim.

As a rule, the reasons that prompted the offender to voice or otherwise express the intention to harm are not taken into account, and ideally the threat of murder or causing serious harm to health by the court should be considered outside of this context. Nevertheless, the reasons can be taken into account in the individualization of punishment, in the event that the victim himself has caused illegal actions to provoke the offender to violate the law.

Reality of the threat

It is impossible to bring a citizen to criminal liability under the analyzed article, if the expressed threat of murder or causing serious harm to health is unfounded and does not constitute a real danger. Typically, the victim of a crime assesses the seriousness of the statement (or written message), based on knowledge of the identity of the offender. Often the basis for unlawful actions is the relationship of two people, often they are based on mutual hostility. In addition, the reality of danger can be expressed in a manner in which words are expressed or a written message is written, or whether the offender has weapons or dangerous items.

Even the USSR Armed Forces determined that a real threat must be considered such actions that would instantly give a citizen a serious reason to fear the implementation of an ominous promise. The Supreme Court urged judges in criminal cases to pay attention to the peculiarities of the attacker's behavior: often it is the characteristic of behavior that allows one to determine in advance the degree of reality of a expressed or otherwise expressed threat. The subjective attitude of the victim to receiving a message is of paramount importance, since the threat can be hidden or veiled and understandable only to its recipient.

The Person of the Intruder

The threat of murder or infliction of serious harm to health is a specific crime, therefore it is necessary to evaluate the individual characteristics of the person who violates the criminal law. It is necessary to analyze the level of his aggression expressed in the event of conflicts, the influence of intoxication on behavior, the presence of a conviction for violent crimes, as well as other circumstances relevant to the assessment of the offense.

The motives for the offender to be violated are very diverse. Their correct establishment and correct evaluation contribute to the individualization of punishment.

Differences

The crime in question must be distinguished from an attempt on life and physical health of a person. The real threat of murder or causing serious harm to health can be expressed only in the communication about the potential danger; The assault is accompanied directly by actions aimed at realizing the threat (or for preparing accordingly to murder or causing grave (and not to a different degree) harm to health).

In practice, it is necessary to distinguish such a crime as the above-mentioned threat of murder or causing serious harm to health (Article 119 of the Criminal Code), from a number of other offenses. So, you can force a person to take tissues for subsequent transplantation, extort, resort to violence at the trial stage or force a person to testify - all these are criminally punishable acts connected with an aggressive warning of danger. To achieve a criminal goal, the violator of the law applies a specific method - a threat.

If competition rules of criminal law should be determined, what is the nature of the crime in fact is common, and which is special. According to the generally accepted rule, preference is always given to a special staff.

Specificity

The threat of murder or causing serious harm to health is recognized as violence only theoretically, as there is no physical contact in fact. Nevertheless, many scholars and theorists of law emphasize the immorality of the act and support the recognition of the crime being analyzed as a punishable form of mental violence.

It is interesting that any other threat can not be regarded as a violation of the criminal law. So, the promise to cause minor harm to health, to break things, rob or rape is not a crime according to the meaning of the analyzed article, since it is strictly about the danger of serious harm or murder.