The Algorithm of Characterization of an Action as a Jointly Committed Crime
The article discusses a sequence of activities to identify a crime as jointly committed. The requirements to the algorithm of such activities are formulated. Programme-based and targeted methods applied by the authors allowed detecting a range of stages of the algorithm. The first four stages aim at defining mandatory elements of a crime allowing to characterize it as a jointly committed action. The rest of the stages focus on identifying a type of criminal complicity. In the article, each stage is described. It is emphasized that in each stage there is a special objective. At the same time, all these stages, taken together, constitute a separate module of the program of criminal characterization of an action. From the authors’ point of view, algorithms are necessary not only for detection of crimes and their criminal characterization, but also for answering the question on existence of criminal complicity in each case. Also the authors give their opinions on interpretation of criminal complicity as a legal category. In particular, it is emphasized that not all of crimes merely committed with participation of two or more persons should be understood as jointly committed. It is joint participation that makes a crime jointly committed. Various forms of criminal complicity and types of co-offenders are considered in the article as well. In various crimes, criminal complicity manifests itself differently. Therefore the proposed algorithm can be applied only after identification a specific article of the Russian Criminal Code stipulating the responsibility for the crime committed.