Establishing the Personal Interest of a Person Committing an Official Crime

Бесплатный доступ

The problem of qualification of official crimes in terms of the fact that the perpetrators have a personal interest is discussed in criminal law theory and is quite acute for practice. Despite the explanations of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on individual types and characteristics of the commented feature as an evaluative one, the decisions of the courts of general jurisdiction are quite contradictory. The problem is controversial due to the fact that any criminal motive is personal, and the desire for career growth, the well-being of family members, the desire to present the results of one’s activities in a favorable light and to enlist the support of management in resolving official issues should hardly be characterized as unconditionally negative. Therefore, identifying the specific features of “personal interest” as a crime-forming feature of the main and mandatory qualified compositions of official crimes, i.e., a circumstance that increases their social danger, is an urgent scientific task. Purpose: to determine a methodological approach to the qualification of abuse of powers and their excess, allowing to establish whether or not an official has a motive of personal interest. Methods: empirical methods of comparison, description, interpretation (used in the study, explanation and critical analysis of judicial practice); theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic (used to identify contradictions and interrelations between legal ideas on the personal interest of a person committing a proper crime, relevant legal forms and legal reality); specific scientific methods: legal-dogmatic and interpretation of legal norms (used to explain the content of criminal law norms in a hermeneutical and socio-political context). Results: the article shows the specifics of the motive of personal interest as a sign of official encroachment in comparison with the personal interest of any criminal, which is determined by the duty of an official to be guided in his official activity not by personal, but by public interest. The existence of the personal interest of a person committing an official crime is evidenced by the clear opposition of a low, socially reprehensible personal motive to a public and legally protected interest. The recognition of interest as personal in the criminal law meaning presupposes its assessment in the context of other circumstances of the encroachment. The methodological basis here is the idea of the crime as a system where objective features correspond to subjective ones and vice versa; we judge the internal motives of the subject by actions, their consequences and other circumstances.

Еще

Other personal interest, careerism, desire to embellish the actual situation, desire to hide one’s incompetence, misunderstood interests of the service, abuse of official powers, exceeding official powers

Короткий адрес: https://sciup.org/142245826

IDR: 142245826   |   УДК: 343.353   |   DOI: 10.33184/pravgos-2025.3.9