“Public Danger” as a Category of the Perpetrator’s Personality: Criminal Law and Criminal Executive Criteria

Abstract

Introduction. The article discusses the topical problem of assessing the public danger of the perpetrator’s personality during the appointment, execution and release from punishment. Criminal and criminal executive legislation does not contain precisely defined criteria for assessing the public danger of an individual, therefore, when imposing punishment and deciding on the release of a convicted person from serving a sentence, the courts apply various criteria for determining the public danger of a person, including subjective discretion. Methods. The methodological basis of this work consists of general scientific methods (analysis, abstraction, deduction, induction, synthesis, generalization) and special scientific methods (comparative-legal, formal-legal). Results. A comparison of criminal law and penitentiary criteria for assessing the public danger of the perpetrator’s personality is carried out. The analysis of criminal and criminal executive legislation has made it possible to identify the main structural elements characterizing these categories, and their main groups have been identified. The analysis of judicial practice from the stage of sentencing to the stage of exemption from criminal liability revealed the interconnection of criminal law and criminal executive criteria. influencing the determination of the degree of public danger of the perpetrator’s personality. Discussion and Conclusion. The author comes to the conclusion that the criteria characterizing the public danger of the guilty person’s personality at the stage of sentencing are more of a criminal law nature, at the stage of execution they acquire a criminal executive characteristic, and at the stage of release from criminal punishment – a combination of criminal law and criminal executive characteristics. Structurally, all criteria include legal, social and personal aspects. The personal aspects of the perpetrator’s social danger are related to the subjective state of the person and his behavior before and after the commission of the crime. The court, taking into account the totality of the circumstances characterizing the personality of the convict, his behaviour during the serving of the sentence, as well as the corrective measures applied, assesses the public danger of the person and its level, on which, among other things, the decision on the possibility of applying socially significant legal consequences for the convict, such as, for example, types of early release from punishment, is based.