Victim of related crimes (on the example of the practice of applying the norms of the criminal procedure legislation of the Russian Federation)

The varying degree and nature of the relationship between interrelated crimes (primary and secondary) create difficulties in determining the range of persons entitled to victim status, which significantly complicates their access to justice and the opportunity to defend their rights and legitimate interests. An analysis of the scientific literature shows that the procedural aspects of the consideration of interrelated crimes have not been sufficiently studied, despite the availability of works on the material and victimological sides of the problem. The complex methodological approach used, which includes a group of methods (system analysis, analogy, logical and comparative legal analysis, legal hermeneutics, content analysis), allows us to speak about the urgency of studying this problem, since the formation of defective law enforcement practice continues. The classification of interrelated crimes into derivatives, connected and related ones makes it possible to increase the effectiveness of procedural activities in criminal cases of interrelated crimes, including in relation to solving the issue of involvement as a victim . The attention and legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation demonstrate the need for a clearer definition of the status of the victim in criminal proceedings on interrelated crimes, the complexity of the application of Part 1 of art. 42 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federationand the need for further improvement of legislation in this area. The conducted research allows us to state that the main problem of the situation lies in the contradiction between the right of a person to be recognized as a victim of an interconnected (concomitant) crime and his status as an accused of committing the «main» crime.