Author

Sharapov R.D.

Title of article

Joint criminal activity without signs of complicity: accidental doing and negligent co-infliction

Section

Section 3. Criminal Law

Issue, year

2 (32) 2015

Abstract

The criminal legal characteristic of accidental doing and negligent co-infliction as main forms of the joint criminal activity of several persons without signs of complicity is provided. The characteristic feature of these forms of joint criminal activity is that each of them differs from complicity in the absence of any objective and subjective sign inherent to complicity. The grounds of criminal responsibility of negligent accomplices, accidental wrongdoers and persons being used for committing crimes under different circumstances, are described. The accidental crime committing is interpreted as committing an intended crime by using action or inaction of other people who are not liable to criminal responsibility for such crime as an actual doer due to the circumstances stipulated by the law. The circumstances conditioning the accidental crime committing are not equal by their legal nature, therefore the accidental crime committing and complicity are mutually exclusive concepts. The accidental crime committing being a legal construct (legal fiction) unlike other forms of joint criminal activity without sings of complicity can combine with the latter in the same crime. The negligent co-infliction is defined as negligent joint participation of one or several persons in committing an undeliberate crime. A negligent co-operation of one person to another in undeliberate causing of socially dangerous consequences as well as inducing to commit an action (inaction) resulted in undeliberate harmdoing (conditional complicity or negligent incitement) do not entail criminal responsibility, except cases when such actions form independent corpus delicti.

Keywords

accidental doing, negligent co-infliction, complicity, joint criminal activity.

References

1. Kovalev M.I. Souchastie v prestuplenii [Complicity in the crime]. Ekaterinburg, 1999. 204 p.

2. Bezborodov D.A. Podstrekatel’stvo k soversheniyu prestupleniya [Incitement to commit a crime]. Tyumen, 2000. 118 p.

3. Ugolovnoe pravo Rossii. Obshchaya chast’ [Criminal law in Russia. Overview]. Moscow, Statut Publ., 2009, 751 p.

4. Khabarov A.V. Aktual’nye problemy ugolovnogo prava [Actual problems of criminal law]. Tyumen, 2008. 332 p.

5. Kharitonova I.R. Neostorozhnoe soprichinenie v sovetskom ugolovnom prave. Avtoref. Kand. Diss. [Neostorozhnoe soprichinenie v sovetskom ugolovnom prave. Autoabstract Cand. Diss.]. Sverdlovsk, 1985. 15 p.

6. Kozlov A.P. Souchastie: traditsii i real’nost’ [Complicity: tradition and reality]. St. Petersburg, 2001. 362 p.