THE AGE OF THE VICTIM AS A SIGN OF A CRIME AND ITS INFLUENCE OF THE QUALIFICATION

Abstract

Minors are a social group in need of increased protection, including by means of criminal law. The State strives to ensure the normal development of minors and their integration into social life. Minors have their own rights and legitimate interests, which may differ or even contradict the interests of adults. Criminal legislation establishes not only increased responsibility for encroachment on a minor, but also increases the punishment for special subjects, defines a special list of crimes related to encroachments on certain interests of minors. This article highlights the actual problem of the influence of the age of a minor on the qualification of a crime and the imposition of punishment. The author analyzes in detail the formulations used in the Criminal Law to indicate the age of a minor victim. The norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in which a minor victim is used with gradation by age groups, are exhaustively given. The victims of the crime may be minors under the age of 18. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with types of crimes differently approaches the definition of a minor: from 0 to 6 years, from 0 to 12 years, from 0 to 14 years, from 12 to 14 years, from 14 to 16 years, from 14 to 18 years, from 0 to 18 years. Not only is the age gradation implemented, but different terms are also used: a newborn, a person who is helpless state, minors, minors. The article considers the question of expediency and justification of the use of different terms and inconsistency in the criminal law norms of the age of a minor victim.