Actual Problems of Extremism Crime Counteraction

Abstract

In the conditions of globalization, international cooperation in counteracting the spread of radical ideologies is based on the common understanding of the necessity to combat the criminal activities of extremism groups. The use of strict criminal sanctions towards persons guilty of extremism crimes fully complies with the requirements set forth in the international agreements regarding the protection of human rights. Isolation of the most dangerous extremists from society is an effective way of preventing acts of terrorism, it has a beneficial impact on national and international security and contributes to the fulfillment of fundamental human rights and freedoms. The problem area of the criminal law qualification of extremism crimes is the necessity to differentiate between violent extremism and other offenses as well as lawful public initiatives against social discrimination and injustice. If power struggle takes place outside the legal framework, it poses a high degree of public danger, but only the gravest illegal actions should be qualified as manifestations of extremism. The ability of national law enforcement to impose sanctions corresponding to the gravity of unlawful methods of political struggle motivated by extremism is determined by the task of separating extremism ideology from less publically dangerous forms of organizing political protests. The analysis of extremism groups criminal activity showed that the ideology of criminal extremism is characterized by the desire to obtain power, authority and political clout by harming lives and health of people as well as by destroying such systemic institutes of civil society as family and private property. The solution to the problem of fair punishment in counteracting crimes with extremist motives lies in the elimination of such conditions that give rise to extremism ideologies and that act as a criminogenic factor determining the most dangerous cases of criminal violence in the Russian society.