Aspects of criminal law and psychology in case of inducing someone to suicide

Introduction. Norms of criminal law providing for responsibility for inducement to suicide are infrequently applied and are the subject of scientific discussion. To increase the effectiveness of protection of life by criminal law it is necessary to clarify the correlation between the incitement to suicide and inducing to commit it, to explain the content of organization of activity aimed at inducing to commit a suicide, investigate the psychological aspect of the victim’s helpless state as well as the Internet influence. Materials and Methods. To achieve the objectives judicial practice on the cases of incitement to suicide, scientific literature devoted to criminal law and psychological problems of fighting inducement to suicide were studied. The author used normative and sociological approaches which help to assess social dependence of criminal responsibility for inducement to suicide. The use of logical formal and structural methods promoted comprehension of the content of the features of corpus delicti provided for by Articles 110, 1101, 1102 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Results and Discussion. The concept of organizing activity aimed at inducement to commit a suicide (Article 1102 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) as the actions of the organizer of inciting someone to commit a suicide (Article 110 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), encouraging or assisting a suicide (Article 1101 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) restrains the scope of protection of human life excluding from it the appeal to an indefinite circle of persons in order to promote suicide. Victim’s hopeless state in case of inducement to suicide is characterized by the measure of his physical and mental disability to resist external influence. Not only must a guilty person realize this circumstance but also use it. In case of inducing to suicide in the Internet the latter is not only the means of communication between a criminal and a victim but also as an additional factor inducing to commit a suicide, the cause of illusion of alternative life. Conclusions. Fighting «provoked» suicides by means of criminal law must cover not only the guilty person’s inducing someone to commit a suicide but also a widely spread promotion of suicides.