About Reflection in the Criminal Law of the Fact of Commission of the Crime for the First Time in Legal Meaning Concerning Certain Categories of Crimes

Abstract

According to the results of a comprehensive study of the problem, it was found that domestic criminal legislation reflects the fact of committing a crime for the first time, traditionally in a legal, and not factual (committing a crime for the first time in life) understanding: such legislative practice always has a preferential criminal law value and is carried out in various ways: in relation to specific crimes or their separate elements, in relation to certain categories of crimes. When assessing the legislative practice of using the concept of a person who first committed a crime in the legal (criminal-legal) sense for the prospect of its improvement and further development, it is noted that the “cross-cutting” meaning of this concept for the entire Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in 1996 was not defined in any norm of this Criminal Code. It has been suggested that for this reason the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not give an interpretation of this concept “for all occasions”: to date, no explanation has been given of the criminal-legal meaning of the concept of a person who first committed a crime in the cases provided for in Part 1 Article 531, part 1 of Article 56, paragraph “a”, Part 1 of Article 61 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It was revealed that such clarifications are expected by the law enforcement officer because the existing interpretations in relation to other norms are of a “thematic” nature and differ in their content. The advantages and disadvantages of the last form of reflecting this circumstance in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of 1996 are named. Based on the analysis of the practice of applying criminal legislation, attention is drawn to the need for its improvement in this direction with specific proposals.