Criminally Punishable Harm to Mental Health: Content and Features

Abstract

The paper discusses the relationship between the concepts of «mental health» and «psychological health». Mental health is protected by criminal law as an integral part of human health in general. The scientific uncertainty of the concept of «psychological health» prevents its recognition as an object of crime. At the same time, civil procedure has established a mechanism aimed at compensating the moral harm caused by a crime to the psychological health of the victim. The understanding of human health and its components in criminal law can be judged primarily through the absence of signs of harm to health characterizing criminal acts (Articles 111, 112, 115 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), among which Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation names a mental health impairment‑a mental disorder. The content of harm to health and the criteria for determining the degree of its severity are disclosed in the by-laws: Rules for determining the severity of harm caused to human health, and Medical criteria for determining the severity of harm caused to human health. To understand what a mental disorder is, it is necessary to refer to the current International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD‑10). Harm to mental health is expressed in psychopathological disorders of clinical significance and is established in accordance with the ICD diagnostic criteria. The paper also examines the content of such a sign of serious harm to health as a mental disorder. The authors analyze scientific views on the differentiation of mental disorders according to the severity of harm to health, the criteria underlying it, as well as the algorithm of expert research, and express their position on the introduction of such differentiation into criminal law and practice.