Some problems of recognizing a person as victim in a criminal case

Introduction: the article is devoted to some issues of recognizing a natural and legal person as victim in the Russian Criminal Procedure. The relevance of the issue under study is caused by the lack of a unified approach to the issue of recognizing a person as victim in the case when the inchoate crime caused no actual harm to the person; in this connection, the authors set the goal to study the above-noted issues. To achieve this goal there were used the methods of scientific cognition: comparative law, systemic, analysis and synthesis. The results obtained: by analyzing the scientists’ points of view mentioned in the article, the authors noted that the factual grounds for recognizing a person as victim need to be not only the fact of actual harm, but the situation which directly threatens the violation of the person’s rights and legitimate interests. Conclusions: the victim is an interested party as to the results of the investigation, conviction and just punishment of the offender. And the international legal acts, the Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation ensure the protection of his rights and legitimate interests. Therefore, we believe it is appropriate to make adjustments to the legal definition of victim given in Article 42 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, indicating the recognition of natural and legal persons as victims in the event of causing harm to them by “the event of crime”.