Concerning the legal nature of concealment of crimes

The research considers the legal nature of concealment of a crime based on doctrinal approaches, comparative legal and historical legal methods. The author emphasizes that the international community focuses on counteraction to concealment (laundering) of property that has been obtained illegally and is considered to be a form of concealment. The study analyzes the experience of French legislature in enshrining the definition of concealment of crimes in law as well as the aspects of its criminalization in criminal laws of Argentina, Jordan, and Germany. Based on the system analysis of the provisions of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, it is concluded that concealment of a crime is a subinstitution of a larger criminal legal institution of involvement in a crime. The need to criminalize concealment in a broad sense is substantiated. It implies the concealment of traces, instrument and instrumentalities of a crime, objects of a crime, a victim along with a perpetrator. In addition to these findings, the author proposes updating the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in order to enshrine a legal definition of concealment of a crime in the General Part of the Code.