Optimization of Criminal Law Measures for Combating Theft

Introduction: the paper discusses the problems of qualifying those forms of socially dangerous offences against property that are not formally prohibited by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, but areе relatively common. The goals and objectives of the study are to analyze the current law enforcement practice of criminal law assessment of such encroachments for its compliance with the principles of domestic criminal law and, above all, the principle of legality. The research methods are the general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, a systematic approach, as well as the logical-legal method and the method of legal interpretation, which are traditional for humanitarian knowledge. As a result, the author states that it is impossible to qualify under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation those situations when the perpetrator seeks a ruling in his favor based on the deception of the court, as well as those situations when the perpetrator receives someone else’s property as payment for the “occult and magical services” provided by him. He also justifies the inadmissibility of qualification under Art. 161, 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of those situations when, in order to seize the victim’s property, potent substances are fraudulently introduced into his body to render him helpless. Conclusions: in order to pre-empt new attacks against property in the form of theft that do not fall under the existing prohibitions of these forms in the current Criminal Code, the modeling of the general prohibition of theft is proposed in Chapter 21 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.