Crimes involving pornographic products: clarification of the immediate object and partial decriminalization

Introduction: the article examines the legal and technical features of crimes involving pornographic products, entailing difficulties in applying the norms under consideration. So, to date, it has not been officially defined what is covered by the concept of pornography and constitutes a category of illegal actions related to the trafficking of adult pornography. At the same time, recent trends indicate a shift in the legislative focus on acts involving the involvement of minors in the illegal trafficking of pornographic products and the establishment of increased responsibility for actions with pornography containing images of persons of the specified age category, turning the norms on countering so-called "adult" pornography into a legal atavism. Materials and Methods: logical, system and structural and statistical methods were used in the work. The research materials were the norms of the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation and foreign countries, the provisions of the resolutions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, scientific literature. Results: the article clarifies the definition of the specific object of acts associated with pornography. The necessity of transferring the acts under consideration due to the similarity of the object of the crime to Chapter 18 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Crimes against sexual inviolability and sexual freedom of the individual" is substantiated. Discussions and Conclusions: an analysis of international regulations, regulatory acts of criminal legislation of a number of foreign countries, as well as the modern development of society in Russia and the world indicate the need for a gradual rejection of the criminal ban on some actions with pornographic products that do not contain images of minors.