Suicide and attempted suicide of the victim: distinction of crimes under articles 120 and 166 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine

Abstract

The article focuses on the issue of recognizing suicide as a social dangerous consequence of persistent failure to perform duties related to the care of a child or a person under guardianship or in the custody (Article 166 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Court practice of application of Article 166 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for 2010-2023 (688 verdicts), as well as the legal opinions of the cassation court on the application of a number of legal provisions were studied. Taking into account the doctrine of criminal law and law enforcement practice, recognition not only the victim’s suicide, but also attempted suicide as a as a social dangerous consequence of this crime was proposed. As a result of the analysis of objective and subjective features of the crimes under Articles 120 «Driving a person into suicide» and 166 «Persistent failure to perform duties related to the care of a child or a person under guardianship or in the custody» of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, their differentiation was carried out. It is emphasized that systematic nature, as a mandatory feature of the act in both crimes, does not give grounds to conclude that the crime under Article 166 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine may be expressed in physical and psychological violence, cruel treatment. Options for qualifying the act depending on the perpetrator’s different psychological attitude to the consequences in the form of driving to suicide or attempted suicide were provided. In order to cover cases of intentional inaction of a person, which may consist, in particular, in failure to perform duties related to the care of a child or a person under guardianship or in the custody, it is proposed to replace the phrase “other actions” with “other act” in Part 1 of Article 120 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.