Criminal Legal Norms with Double Prevention: Concept, Mechanism of Preventive Action and Types

Abstract

The paper reveals the specifics of the mechanism of preventive impact of criminal law norms with double prevention, which results in the definition and classification of these norms. The concept of norms with double prevention arose in Soviet criminology following the research on recidivism and measures to prevent serious crimes against a person. Despite the fact that the current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is expanding the number of norms with a clear preventive focus (for example, Art. 173.1 «Illegal formation (creation, reorganization) of a legal entity», Art. 205.1 «Assistance to terrorist activities», Art. 205.6 «Failure to report a crime»), the theory on norms with double prevention as a means of preventing crime is not developing. Scientists mainly reproduce the provisions of the Soviet doctrine, occasionally making clarifications. Having applied the system structural analysis of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and analyzed the criminological theory of crime prevention, the author concludes that the norms prohibiting actions that act as objective and subjective criminogenic factors have a double preventive potential. Accordingly, the essence of the mechanism of the preventive impact of the norms with double prevention is to reduce and neutralize such factors by bringing to criminal responsibility or its threat. When describing the model of the preventive impact of criminal law norms with double prevention, aimed at objective criminogenic factors, the author applied the concept of situational prevention of crimes. The specifics of norms with double prevention that affect subjective criminogenic factors are explained within the framework of data on recurrent (actual) violent crime and G. Tarde’s theory of learning.