Special Subject of Crime as an Object of Criminological Determination

Abstract

Currently, many authors pay attention to the criminological description of the object of their research. This approach is absolutely justified. It is better to examine the institutes of criminal law in correlation with the interdisciplinary spheres of knowledge. The article presents an analysis of adjacent but not equal legal categories of the subject of crime and the personality of a criminal. This research is relevant today because crimes committed by persons with characteristics of a special subject in general, and with the use of their official position in particular, have a higher degree of public danger. It is connected with a wide area of official interests of public officers. Their criminal offences destabilize the normal work of governmental bodies. Corruption, abuse of office, general crimes committed for personal gain act as negative social and legal phenomena that widen the range of persons in criminal statistics referring to special subject. A heightened degree of public danger in the actions of public officers is a factor that influences current criminal legislation. An example is the abuse of public office as a circumstance that aggravates criminal liability. The contents of the norms in the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation could be named a legislative reaction of the authorities to the growing level of misuse of office. The current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation mentions the misuse of office with mercenary motives or for personal gain, acting as an aggravating circumstance for the main crime, over 60 times. Taking into account that the contemporary condition and scale of the self-determination of crime according to the characteristic of a special subject are developing interconnected systemic causes and conditions, it is possible to discuss the necessity of criminological prevention of crimes with a special subject — a criminogenic person who has specific functions (as a rule, a representative of authorities).