СУДИМОСТЬ ЗА ПРЕСТУПЛЕНИЯ, СОВЕРШЕННЫЕ В ВОЗРАСТЕ ДО ВОСЕМНАДЦАТИ ЛЕТ

Abstract

The legal consequence of convicting a person for a crime and criminal punishment is a criminal record. A person has a number of adverse consequences if his criminal record is not withdrawn or repaid in accordance with the law. However, not all adverse effects of criminal records apply to perpetrators under the age of eighteen. Thus, convictions for crimes committed before the age of eighteen are not taken into account in the recurrence of crimes, the most dangerous form of multiple crimes, which has a number of adverse legal consequences for the person whose acts constitute a legal recidivism. This legislative work is in line with international standards for the treatment of minors. It takes into account the age specifics of those under the age of majority, the peculiarities of their socio-psychological development. In this regard, the author criticizes the proposal expressed in the scientific literature to expand legal recidivism due to crimes committed by persons under the age of 18, by excluding from part four of Article 18 of the Criminal Code paragraph «b». Currently, the commission of a crime by a person previously convicted of similar or homogeneous crimes, in a number of offences, the legislator is provided as a qualifying feature, strengthening criminal responsibility (v. 5 p. 131, p. 5 p. 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, etc.). In this case, the qualification of crimes takes into account the criminal record for these crimes committed by a person under the age of eighteen. It would be logical if there was no criminal record in other offences as a qualifying feature, to take into account its presence in the commission of a new offence as an aggravating circumstance, in sentencing, including those who had committed crimes under the age of eighteen. At the same time, criminal convictions should be taken into account only for intentional serious and especially serious crimes. It would be appropriate to supplement the list of aggravating circumstances under article 63 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with the fact that a person who has an outstanding (not withdrawn) conviction for a serious or particularly serious premeditated crime, in the absence of signs of recidivism, would be appropriate. In view of the high level of criminological recidivism among minors, this would be a means of individualizing their criminal responsibility. According to the author, the rule relating to this aggravating circum-stance should be designed as discretionary. This would enable the court to decide whether to recognize (or not) the aggravating penalty, depending on the nature and degree of public danger of the crimes committed by the person and the identity of the perpetrator, which is particularly important in deciding whether to punish minors.