JUVENILE INVOLVEMENT INTO ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES AND USE OF A MINOR CHILD FOR BEGGING: CRIMINAL AND LEGAL DUALISM

Abstract

The article is devoted to the research of crimes in Art. 304 «Involvement of juvenile in illegal activities» and Art. 150-1 «Use of a minor child for begging» of the current Criminal Code of Ukraine. The purpose and the relevance of the research topic are determined by the growing number of cases involving of juveniles and use of minors in criminal activities, begging business, alcohol drinking, gambling in Ukraine. The authors analyze the concepts of «juvenile», «minor child», «involvement», «use», which are enshrined in these articles and consider differences in their legal interpretation. The research also covers the study of the terms «begging», «alcohol drinking», «gambling». The authors found imperfection of the norms of the Criminal Code of Ukraine that establish criminal liability for the involvement and use of juveniles (minor children) in criminal offenses and in the above-listed immoral actions. Based on the analysis the authors propose to introduce to the current Criminal Code of Ukraine the following legislative amendments: 1) to define the terms «juvenile» and «minor child» in Section I of the General Part – «General provisions» of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, namely, «a minor child is an individual who is under the age of 14», «a juvenile is an individual who is above the age of 14 but under the age of 18»; 2) to consolidate the term «minor child» in paragraph 9, Part 1 of Art. 67 of the Criminal code of Ukraine while characterizing the circumstances aggravating the punishment; 3) to provide the term «minor child» in the other provisions of the General and Special Parts of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which use the terms «child», «minor»; 4) to amend Art. 304 of the Criminal code of Ukraine incorporating into it two forms of actus reus - involvement and use of the juvenile (minor child) in criminal activity; 5) to formulate new Article 304-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which will establish criminal liability for involvement and use of a juvenile (minor child) in immoral actions such as begging, alcohol drinking, gambling; to clarify the meaning of the above-listed immoral actions in the note to this article; 6) to exclude Art. 150-1 from the Criminal Code of Ukraine.