Petty crime: quo vadis?

Abstract

The subject of this research is the normative gaps that have been an intrinsic part of petty crime for many years. Among most discussible within the academic community problems related to such legal violation, the author selected the following: absence of legal definition of the concept of obscenities in the national legislation; complexity of delimitation of petty crime from the adjacent administrative and criminal offences; disaccord in interpretation of the concept of “public place”. Particular attention is paid to the prospects of optimization of administrative-legal norms established in the Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation. The main conclusion of the conducted research lies in the statement that from the perspective of legal technique, the article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation is in a permanent motion. However, this motion is chaotic and inconsequential. The introduced amendments to the text of codified law did not enhanced the protection of public order, as well as created the additional difficulties for the law enforcer. This article makes an attempt of systemic analysis of provisions of the Federal Law No.28-FZ of 03.18.2019 that complemented the article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation with the Sections 3-5.