Qualification of certain elements of crimes committed with the use of weapons or items used as weapons

The article considers the legal nature of the circumstance aggravating the punishment «with the use of weapons or objects used as weapons» on the example of certain violent crimes Materials and Methods: the legislative basis of the study is the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the criminal legislation of Russia formed on its basis, other sectoral regulations regulating the sphere of public security, as well as defining the legal basis of responsibility for certain types of armed crimes. The methodological characteristic of the study is a dialectical approach to scientific cognition of objects of social reality, which allows a comprehensive study of the object and subject of research, formal-logical, system-structural and other methods of scientific cognition were used The Results of the study: it allowed us to clarify certain provisions relating to the peculiarities of the legislative concept of «weapons» in the criminal law aspect at the present stage of the development of public relations. The theoretical and practical issues of the legislative assessment of the concept of weapons are determined in the context of the legal characteristics of the signs of certain elements of crimes related to the use of weapons or objects used as weapons. Attention is drawn to the need for uniform application and clear differentiation of the signs «with the use of weapons or objects used as weapons» and «with the use of violence dangerous to life or health» in the theory of criminal law and in judicial practice. The analysis of judicial practice testifies to the inconsistency and instability of judicial practice, which is largely predetermined by different views on the content of this circumstance aggravating punishment Findings and Conclusions: the results obtained will help in determining the characteristics of the qualification of armed crimes, in order to determine a unified judicial practice; the main legal characteristics of the elements of the compositions of the analyzed crimes are determined. It is suggested that it is necessary to change some basic provisions of the theory of criminal law in the qualification of crimes involving the use of weapons or objects used as weapons