The legal nature of the crimes of the performer and co-perpetrator and their reflection in the system of criminal legislation of Russia

Introduction: this article examines the legal nature of the performer and co-perpetrator, their essence and content, analyzes various views in the theory of criminal law regarding possible combinations of co-perpetrators, determines the place of reflection of the crimes of the performer, co-perpetrator and other accomplices in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Methods and Materials: the methodological basis of the research was formed by the general method of dialectical epistemology in the study of the legal nature of the institution of the performer, co-performer and other accomplices, their reflection as in the system of criminal legislation. When solving certain problems, general scientific research methods are used in the work, in particular, comparative legal, systemic and structural, linguistic. In the study of materials of judicial and law enforcement practice, analysis was used as a particular scientific method of cognition. Results of the study made it possible to substantiate that, unlike the crimes of the perpetrator, the place of reflection of the crimes of other accomplices is the General Part of the Criminal Code, and also to make a strict distinction between the content of the actions of the performer, co-perpetrator and other accomplices. They provided an opportunity to clarify that in the Special Part of the Criminal Legislation the perpetrator’s crimes are the object of reflection exclusively in relation to the direct commission of the crime, and also to propose its definition. Findings and Conclusions: the results of the study confirm the imperfection of the current edition of Part 2 of Art. 34 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the expediency of the criminal law regulation of its new edition, as well as the need to amend 3 of this article according to which, when qualifying a crime, it is necessary to specify the type of an accomplice, that is, to refer, among other things, to the corresponding part of the specified norm.