Non-Obvious Solutions to the Problems of Countering Crimes by Force

Abstract

Currently the problem of countering socially dangerous actions is viewed as a national project that declares the right of citizens to safe living conditions. A growing attention is paid to the possibilities that citizens and law enforcers have to lawfully counteract the criminal expansion, to protect themselves and other people through lawful use of force against persons committing dangerous infringements. Besides, the citizens themselves are willing to help law enforcement officers, and both of these groups need secure legislative instruments that authorize inflicting harm on the interests protected by criminal law without fearing legal responsibility. The existing state of legislation and its enforcement cannot satisfy the interests of either those people who show their civic initiative in counteracting the criminal expansion, or the representatives of law enforcement involved in operative measures aimed at indentifying and detecting illegal actions. We believe that the current norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, primarily the norms of Chapter 8, are obviously not sufficient. Besides, their legislative formulations are far from perfect and make it possible to transfer the guilt for inflicting harm onto persons who inflicted this harm in the conditions precluding the criminal character of their actions. The authors suggest changing the legal regulation of these circumstances in criminal legislation and, on this basis, considerably amending the contents of Chapter 8 with new circumstances with the goal of improving the effectiveness of its practical implementation.