Public method of committing extremist crimes: essence and criterias

The article examines the public method of committing extremist crimes and analyzes the position of a foreign legislator on the definition of publicity. The author gives the criterias for publicity and notes, that a group and an unlimited number of persons can act as addressees of public appeals. The article raises the problem of delimiting extremist crimes committed by public method, from incitement to commit a specific crime, if the subject knows the size of the group and its members. Based on the analysis of legislation and modern scientific research, the author concludes, that the main feature, that distinguishes incitement to a specific crime from the acts provided in the articles 280, 280.1, 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, is the individual certainty of socially dangerous actions, that the subject calls for. The author notes, that mass mailing of messages forms a public method of committing extremist crimes, since the fact of the possibility of perception of information by a group of persons is important. In addition, the researcher proposes ways to reform the legislation, in particular, to fix in article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation the use of mass media or information and telecommunication networks, including the Internet, as a qualifying feature.