Criminal Law Theory Research Articles

Criminal Liability of Legal Entities in the Kyrgyz Republic and the Specifics of the Application of Criminal Law Terms

The article examines the dynamics of the development of the doctrinal concept of criminal liability of a legal entity, examines the points of view of leading scientists of criminal and criminal procedure law on existing and promising areas of development of the institution of criminal liability of legal entities in Kyrgyzstan and other countries. The appearance of quasi-criminal liability of legal entities in the criminal legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic seems justified. The article provides a number of arguments in support of the innovations introduced into the criminal legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic regarding the criminal liability of legal entities. In this scientific article, the author reveals the content and dynamics of the development of modern doctrinal discussions on the key problems of the institution of criminal liability of legal entities in the criminal legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic and the positions of the main scientific schools of Kyrgyzstan, Russia and abroad on theoretical issues of criminal liability. legal entities; to identify the main scientific doctrines concerning the understanding of criminal liability of legal entities; to consider the prevailing points of view on the category of the subject of criminal liability. The article also used traditional general scientific research methods such as the dialectical method of cognition, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, etc., as well as private scientific legal methods, including formal legal, the method of legal interpretation, etc. The main sources of information are electronic versions of official publications of normative legal acts of the Kyrgyz Republic, special literature on the research topic. The article also substantiates the conclusion that in the theory of criminal law, the category of “legal entity as a subject of criminal liability” is by far the most controversial.

Лицо, совершившее преступление: современные вызовы и ответы

Introduction. The view of criminal law as a means of regulating the behaviour of free willed people, which limits the sphere of criminal repression, has always been corrected by pragmatic considerations related to the need to influence the harmful behaviour of non-personal subjects. In modern society there is a need for it in connection with the assessment of socially significant harm, the source of which are legal entities and artificial intelligence systems, resulting in attempts to include them in the category of subjects of criminal law on the basis of the theoretically questionable concept of distinguishing between subjects of crime and subjects of criminal liability. Methods. The research was carried out by means of various methods, particularly general scientific methods of cognition, such as analysis, synthesis, generalisation, as well as private scientific - formal-legal, comparative-legal, method of interpreting legal norms, etc. Results. It is obvious that the issue of applying measures of influence in relation to non-personal subjects of law should be resolved with regard to and on the basis of philosophical theories of criminal law, the most attractive of which presents criminal law as a means of moral condemnation of acts that destroy the system of values designed to guarantee the stability and sustainability of society, and which does not allow the application of measures of criminal law influence against persons who are not capable of free moral choice. Keeping the current provisions on the possibility of recognising the subject of crime and the subject of criminal liability as exclusively a human being should be considered as a component of the system of maintaining the human aspect of criminal law and protecting the law from its dehumanisation.

Principle of scientific support of rulemaking and construction of criminal law norms

The article highlights the issue of the principle of scientific support for the construction of criminal law provisions as one of the fundamental principles of rulemaking in the field of criminal law. This principle is based on the legislator’s obligation to adhere to the scientific approach and scientific methods at all stages of the rulemaking process, and this implies that such criminal law rulemaking decisions should be made which correspond to the level of scientific development of the relevant issue in the theory of criminal law and guarantee the actual implementation of the principle of legality in rulemaking in this area. The author suggests that in order to fully realize the potential of the principle of scientific support for rulemaking in the field of criminal law, it is advisable to combine its use with the principle of practical compliance of criminal law provisions and the possibilities of their application. This principle should be taken into account both in the process of updating criminal legislation in general and in the development of individual criminal law provisions. The principle of scientific support for the construction of criminal law provisions may not be taken into account when adopting laws of Ukraine on criminal liability in an extraordinary period, as exemplified by the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. The need for an immediate state response to such global threats by adjusting the current criminal legislation without observing the principle of scientificity is exceptional. As a rule, the adoption of new criminal laws without observing the principle of scientific evidence results in low quality criminal law provisions that are not able to ensure their effective application. The principle of scientific support should be implemented both during the scientific examination of draft criminal laws and during the scientific support of the entire rulemaking process.

Correlation of certain provisions of the criminal law with the principles of law

The article is devoted to the study of the issue of introduction of absolutely definite sanctions in the law on criminal liability, the reasons and prerequisites which contributed to their emergence, and the correlation of such changes with the principles of law. The Law of Ukraine «On Amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine on Strengthening Liability for Crimes Against the Fundamentals of National Security of Ukraine in the Conditions of Martial Law» of March 3, 2022, amended the law on criminal liability and strengthened liability under Articles 111 and 113 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provide for liability for high treason and sabotage by applying absolutely certain sanctions. In the context of the issue raised, the authors also examine the current practice of law enforcement in the form of decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the European Court of Human Rights on similar issues through the prism of the principles of law. According to the provisions of the criminal law theory, a sanction is a part of a rule of law which contains instructions on the legal consequences of violation of a rule set forth in a disposition. The purpose of a sanction is to create certain unfavorable consequences for the offender or incentives for the subjects who comply with the governmental order. The types of sanctions include: by the degree of certainty: 1) absolutely certain – clearly define the type and extent of legal liability; 2) relatively certain – the limits of legal liability are determined from minimum to maximum or only to maximum. An absolutely definite sanction is a type of sanction in a criminal law provision that establishes a single type and amount of punishment. With the adoption of the new law on criminal liability in 2001, the legislator completely abandoned this type of sanction, which enabled courts to exercise discretion in passing sentences based on the results of each criminal proceeding. In the article, the authors reflect and substantiate the assertion that in the sanctions of the articles under consideration, alternatives to imposing punishment for the specified criminal offenses in the form of life imprisonment as the most severe punishment currently available in the law can only formally be considered an alternative to imposing a punishment of 15 years of imprisonment. A formal approach to the issue of sentencing a person who has committed a criminal offense not only makes it impossible to individualize responsibility, but also to demonstrate to society the principle of justice in sentencing.

О некоторых проблемах уголовно наказуемого уклонения как длящегося преступления на примере злостного неисполнения судебного акта (ст. 315 УК РФ)

In this article, through the prism of one of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the problems of malicious non-execution of judicial act as a continuing crime are considered, in connection with which the issues of the criminal-legal significance of an unfulfilled duty in the structure of a continuing crime are analyzed, as well as determining the moment of the end of malicious non-execution of a judicial act. To this end, the theory of criminal law and judicial practice are studied. The author substantiates the conclusion that, contrary to the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the application of criminal law norms on evasion within the framework of the construction of continuing crimes entails a violation of the principle of prohibiting the repeated conviction of the guilty person for the same crime.

The path to recognition (An essay on the life and scientific heritage of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences A. N. Trainin)

The article is devoted to the scientific heritage of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Law, Professor, statesman and public figure Aron Naumovich Trainin. A. N. Trainin is known primarily as a legal ideologue of anti-fascism, one of the first developers of problems of International Criminal Law; who participated in the Nuremberg trials as a consultant. He is the author of over 300 works. He was actively engaged in the development of problems of the theory of Criminal Law – corpus delicti, complicity, criminal responsibility, International Criminal Law.

Согласие на причинение вреда как потенциальное обстоятельство, исключающее преступность деяния: к вопросу о содержании понятия

The problem of consent to injury raises almost the largest number of discussions in the Russian criminal law theory. Although the social relations need the respective legal regulation, the criminal law has no provision to determine legality of causing an injury upon the victim’s consent. The concept of consent to injury is the critical aspect of the problem under consideration. In this article, the author analyzes classical and contemporary approaches to defining the named concept and the list of its attributes and concludes that the consent to injury as a circumstance that excludes the criminal nature of the act is a will of a person that is formed based on personal interest gives rise to permissive criminal relations and is aimed at performance of an act by another person leading to socially relevant changes in a specific criminal law protection object owned by the consent subject. The conclusions presented in the article can be used as a theoretical basis for studies of conditions of acknowledging an injury caused upon the victim’s consent as legal, and in law making activities at design of respective legal provisions on consent to injury as a circumstance that excludes the criminal nature of the act.

The relationship between criminal and medical law in the era of cybernetic civilization

The article offers for consideration separate results of comprehensive scientific research on the relationship between criminal and medical law in the era of cybernetic civilization. Attention is focused on the issue of prospects for the formation of elements of artificial intelligence in the medical field with extrapolation and judicial proceedings regarding the criminal responsibility of medical workers. Attention is also drawn to the so-called "criminal medical cases". In the theory of criminal law, criminology and criminology, such a concept as "cases concerning professional medical offenses" is also used in relation to criminal medical cases, in the sense of intentional or negligent acts committed by medical workers in the performance of their professional duties, prohibited by criminal law under the threat of punishment . Analyzing the general issues of responsibility of medical workers for professional criminal offenses, it is proposed to consider them in two aspects of manifestation: professional medical crimes; official medical crimes. Criminal acts of medical workers, for which they are held criminally liable on general grounds, are proposed to be separated separately from the composition of medical crimes. It is shown that today one of the means of systematic resolution of legal conflicts in jurisprudence is the possibilities of achievements in the field of informatics, cybernetics for the proper management of human behavior with the use of electronic communication technologies, which is the essence of the era of cyber civilization, cybernetic society, in particular, in what determines the essence of industry artificial intelligence systems.For the qualitative creation of branch systems of artificial intelligence, legal science faces the task of properly setting tasks for the developers of such systems, taking into account the relevant regulatory and legal array, its incorporation and consolidation, including at the conceptual level. In terms of prospects for further research, it is proposed to pay attention to the problems of systemic improvement of the medical sphere of society, including for the qualitative implementation of the achievements of informatics and cybernetics, in particular through the formation of artificial intelligence. In this regard, legal science should create an appropriate array of structured, interrelated knowledge at the interdisciplinary level under the conventional name of medical and legal informatics.

Current Measures for Handling Cyber Bullying and Its Path to the Rule of Law: Based on a Comparative Study

The third technological revolution and the vigorous development of the Internet industry have made it easy for people to obtain information and publish news on the Internet. While Internet penetration continues to reach new highs, so do incidents of cyber bullying. From "a woman was subjected to rumors and cyberbullying just for picking up a courier" to "Xuezhou Liu, a boy looking for relatives, committed suicide", there are countless tragedies caused by cyber bullying. Since 2008, all sectors of society have been continuously studying the issue of cyber bullying, and until 2024, there are countless studies on cyber bullying, mainly in journalism, sociology, political science, law, education and psychology, etc., with a wide range of research topics. In this context, this study will compare and contrast the similarities and differences between Chinese and foreign measures for dealing with cyber bullying and the path of rule of law, and fill in the lack of boundaries between cyber violence and ordinary violence in criminal law theory.

INSTITUTE OF ENSURING THE RIGHTS AND INTERESTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE FIELD OF CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS (MONITORING THE LEGISLATION OF THE CIS COUNTRIES)Kairat Eslyamkalievich Ismagulov

The authors examined the issues of ensuring the rights and interests of individuals in the field of criminal proceedings both in the Republic of Kazakhstan and in other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (hereinafter referred to as the CIS). The protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms is a universal principle, since these values are subject to priority protection in all spheres of public and state life. Man, his rights and freedoms occupy a central place and dominate over all other humanitarian values. The protection of human rights and freedoms acquires particular socio-political importance in the field of criminal proceedings, that is, where law enforcement agencies have the capabilities of state coercion, allowing them to invade the sphere of personal interests and significantly limit them. The legal policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan has already solved a number of important tasks to improve criminal procedural legislation. Since 2015, a new Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as the Code of Criminal Procedure) has been in force, which has introduced many innovations to simplify, speed up, reduce investigative and judicial procedures, streamline and differentiate the procedural powers of persons conducting criminal proceedings, strengthen the status of the defense party, as well as ensure the rights and legitimate interests of all persons participating in criminal proceedings. In addition, new legal institutions, proceedings and norms have been introduced that bring the criminal process closer to successfully tested models for the investigation of criminal offenses and the administration of justice. Along with this, most legislative decisions, when tested by law enforcement practice, showed their weak (insufficient) effectiveness, inconsistency with the established provisions of the theory of criminal procedure law, the absence in law enforcement practice and in the theory of criminal proceedings of unified conceptual approaches to the volume, form, mechanisms and the limits of implementation of the constitutional principle of competition in regulating various legal relations in the area under consideration.

On the Boundary between the Exercise of Rights and Property Crimes

In modern rule-of-law societies, the awareness of rights is intrinsic to individuals. Despite having legitimate purposes, the exercise of rights also has lawful boundaries. In the context of criminal law, discussing the exercise of rights pertains to cases of abuse of rights through property crimes, including statutory and inherent rights. Judicial practice often leans towards exoneration in such cases, but a trend towards criminalization has emerged in recent years, necessitating a scientifically unified solution from criminal law theory. To achieve effective exoneration, it is crucial to precisely define the scope and types of rights exercised, targeting the different characteristics of ownership realization and claim realization. By clarifying the protected legal interests of property crimes and exploring the relationship between criminal and civil law, the path of excluding unlawfulness should be adopted for exoneration, decriminalizing situations with a legitimate rights basis where the means are necessary and proportionate. In cases where both the constituent elements and unlawfulness are satisfied, the presence or absence of an intent to unlawfully possess should be examined through the manifestation of claim realization. When the actor has an intent to unlawfully possess, it should be recognized as a property crime.

Prank and Criminal Law

The article is devoted to the study of such a little-studied phenomenon in the domestic theory of criminal law as prank. In the context of digitalization, the need to understand its legal consequences has increased significantly. The author comes to the conclusion that the Russian science of criminal law is at the stage of early understanding of pranking. To date, no single solution has been developed both in terms of improving criminal legislation and regarding the rules for qualifying pranking. Under these conditions, judicial investigative practice selectively and very contradictorily reacts to pranking by applying traditional criminal law norms on liability for theft, extortion, theft, hooliganism, etc. Taking into account the social essence of the phenomenon, the article concludes that a simple decision to criminalize pranking does not exist. Based on an analysis of existing points of view in the science of criminal law and materials from law enforcement practice, approaches to the criminal legal assessment of pranking are highlighted.

An Empirical Study on the Use of Justice for Implicated Offenders — Targeting 117 Criminal Judgments

In China’s criminal law theory, implicated offenders are defined as “a crime to be punished”, and unless otherwise provided for in the criminal law, they are to be punished as “a felony”. In judicial practice, the number of implicated cases is increasing, and there are many controversial points. The first is the contradiction at the theoretical level, because it has become a trend in traditional civil law countries to abolish implicated offenders, and the controversy over the existence and abolition of implicated offenders is constantly controversial in legal theory. The second is the contradiction at the practical level, in terms of the application of specific cases, the existing legal provisions of the implicated offender cannot exhaust the current practical needs, and there is no clear and comprehensive legal basis for determining the implicated offender.

The necessity of implementing the consent of the victim as a cause which removes the criminal character of the act

Consent of the victim is a controversial subject in the criminal law theory. Moreover, in our national doctrine it is an unexplored one. In the content of this article, we aimed to elucidate if it is necessary or it is not relevant to implent the consent of victim as a cause which removes the criminal character of the act. In order to accomplish this goal, we have used the method of comparative law and studied other countries’ judicial and legal practice related to the consent of victim. Consequently, we have identified which are the main conditions for valability of victim’s consent and how should be formulated the proposal for a law which will implement the consent of victim as a cause which removes the criminal character of the act in the Republic of Moldova’s Criminal Code.

Social conditioning of criminalization of offenses qualified as collaborative activity

One of the types of social relations that arose during the war in Ukraine is relations with the occupiers, which can be carried out both within the legal field and be an illegal, criminal manifestation in the form of cooperation with the enemy and assistance to him. Such illegal nature of relations with the occupiers is considered a collaborative activity. The legislator was faced with the task of determining the composition of such an offense and establishing the punishment for actions that constitute collaborationism. Despite a fairly large number of studies of individual and complex issues of criminal liability for collaborative activities, a number of questions remain open.
 The purpose of this study was to establish the social conditions and the existence of the necessary grounds for the criminalization of socially dangerous acts that constitute collaborative activity.
 In the theory of criminal law, it is clearly established which factors must be taken into account when deciding on the criminalization of a particular illegal act - they are defined as the grounds for criminalizing illegal acts: the existing (real) social danger of the act; its relative prevalence; the need for a criminal legal guarantee; fulfillment by the state of international legal obligations The above research allows us to assess the social conditionality of the criminalization of collaborative activities. First, taking into account the importance of the protected order of social relations, which is encroached upon by collaborative activity, actions containing signs of such illegal activity are socially dangerous. Secondly, official statistical data on the number of registered cases of collaborative activity and persons prosecuted under Art. 111-1, testify to the sufficient prevalence of collaborative activities on the territory of Ukraine. Thirdly, collaborative activity should be punished most severely, namely by establishing criminal liability for it. And, fourthly, the establishment of criminal liability for collaborative activities correlates with the provisions of international legal acts and ensures Ukraine’s fulfillment of relevant international legal obligations.

A comprehensive study of the main theoretical and practical aspects of the qualification of crimes in the field of economic activity by evaluation criteria

The subject of the study is the theoretical, legal and practical aspects of the analysis and consideration of evaluation features in the qualification of economic crimes. The author, focusing on the key provisions of the theory of criminal law devoted to the interpretation of evaluative features of the corpus delicti, formulates their definition itself, classifying species diversity in relation to the norms of Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Special attention is paid to the elements of blankness, descriptive and evaluative dispositions of articles providing for criminal liability in the economic sphere of management. The importance of certain conceptual normative legal documents of regulatory branches of law, namely: banking, tax, currency and others for the process of correct qualification of certain types of criminal encroachments is emphasized. Exploring normative acts and scientific works in the context of the stated problems, the author uses as the main method of system analysis, as well as universal dialectical, logical, formal-legal, hermeneutic methods in their entirety that allowed a thorough analysis of the technical and legal basis for the construction of certain types of evaluation features within the framework of Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, subdividing them quantitative (size), qualitative (not measurable in value) and cumulative; substantiate the theoretical and practical conclusions presented in the work, taking into account the latest legislative developments and the practical needs of the law enforcement officer. The work contains the author's approaches to such problems as the concept of qualification of crimes, evaluative features of the corpus delicti, the ways of their clarification and species diversity in the field of qualification of crimes of an economic orientation within the framework of the interaction of the doctrine of criminal law and law enforcement activities are formulated. The proposed innovations of the "basic legal structures" form in their entirety the novelty of the work. In addition, the author proposes the adoption of a separate resolution of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation containing the basic principles for the use of the category of "evaluation features" within the framework of Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for their orderly interpretation and uniform application.

2023년 형사소송법 중요 판례 평석

In 2023, there were numerous Supreme Court rulings in the field of criminal procedure law. Among them, eleven important judgments with substantial meanings related to criminal practice, theory, and guarantee of basic rights of the people were selected to introduce the issues and to give a brief review. The main judgments introduced in the paper include the following; ① A ruling that determined that it was illegal to newly search and print a copy of the imaging created during the seizure and search of electronic information in the preceding case for the purpose of investigating criminal charges against an accomplice after the judgment in the preceding case was already confirmed, ② A ruling against the need to recognize the right of the principal offender to participate in the case where a person concealing evidence arbitrarily submits the information storage medium after being incited to conceal it by the person in question, ③ A ruling that in cases of an offence unpunishable over objection, an adult guardian cannot decide not to seek punishment on behalf of a victim who is incompetent, ④ A ruling acknowledging the admissibility of video footage taken without a warrant by an investigative agency at the scene of a crime during or immediately after the crime, ⑤ The Supreme Court ruling that Article 60-6, Paragraph 1 of the Military Criminal Act applies to assaults between Korean soldiers and others that occurred at U.S. military bases in Korea (excluding the application of impunity against will), ⑥ A ruling that determines the degree of reliability of the suspect's statement at the investigation stage as a condition for acknowledging the evidentiary capacity of the investigator's testimony, ⑦ A ruling that acknowledged the admissibility of a phone call recording between the defendant and an individual, which was secretly recorded by the individual, ⑧ Judgment that determines the meaning of ‘when the contents are acknowledged’ in Article 312, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Procedure Act and the requirements for the admissibility of evidence of the defendant’s accomplice written by the prosecutor, ⑨ A ruling that a decision must be made explicitly on whether to grant permission for a prosecutor's request to change the indictment, ⑩ A ruling that set strict sentencing conditions for the original trial verdict that sentenced the death penalty, ⑪ Judgment explaining the scope of adjudication of the supreme court and the remand trial on the main and reserve indictments, ⑫ Judgments explaining the requirements for trial without attendance at the appellate trial and the requirements for public notice, ⑬ A ruling that explains the scope of the effect of a final judgment on some of the concurrent offences.
 Through active criticism of the above rulings and discussions, many developments are expected in the field of criminal procedure law case and theory this year.

Problematic Issues of the Correlation of Circumstances Aggravating Punishment with Qualifying Factors

Introduction: the issues of the correlation of aggravating circumstances with qualifying factors provided for in the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are of particular importance in the science and theory of criminal law. However, the main layer of proceedings is assigned to the subjects applying the law. The law enforcement officer faces a number of issues related to the definition, correlation and delineation of aggravating circumstances, which are fixed in the General Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and qualifying constituent elements. Of course, the resolution of these issues affects the measures of criminal responsibility and criminal punishment. Methods: the methodological framework for the study includes a whole range of methods of scientific cognition, among which the methods of system analysis and synthesis are of fundamental importance. Results: the paper presents the analysis of the circumstances aggravating punishment and their correlation with qualifying factors, which are fixed in the articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The factors that make it possible to distinguish between circumstances aggravating punishment and qualifying factors are considered and classified. Conclusions: a comparative analysis of the correlation of circumstances aggravating punishment and qualifying factors allows concluding that qualifying factors, unlike aggravating circumstances, affect not only the imposition of punishment, but are also directly taken into account in the process of differentiation of criminal responsibility and in the classification of specific criminal acts.

Legal Education Aspects Among the youth in the Republic of Kazakhstan

The main problem: The development of theoretical aspects of legal education, legal awareness. Organizational forms of legal education. Forms and methods of education of legal awareness, legal culture. Features of the formation of legal culture in the modern period. Problems of improving legal culture and legal education. Legal education forms a sense of confidence and independence in the legal sphere among the population of the state, thereby stimulating the legal activity of an individual, which presupposes voluntary, conscious, proactive, socially and morally responsible human behavior. Purpose: The article deals with the legal education of modern youth. The means of forming a legal culture are the promotion of law, the development of legal knowledge among citizens, the practical strengthening of the rule of law, the presence of a strong legal science, the improvement of the system of legal acts, which is achieved due to the presence in the state of a democratic, effective constitution and high legal and technical-legal quality of laws and by-laws. Methods: Methodology of the study. The methodological basis of the study was made up of: generally recognized methods of scientific research of the phenomena of reality in their interrelation and interdependence both at the theoretical level (systemic, comparative legal, formal legal, historical methods of analysis, etc.) and at the empirical level (statistical analysis, questionnaires, research of documents, printed publications); the main provisions of the theory of criminal law, ethics, philosophy, psychology; rules of formal logic. The results and their significance: In this regard, there is a need to create a Republican Center for Legal Education at the Institute of State and Law, which will provide scientific research on the problems of legal education and upbringing, the development of the content and methodology of legal education at all levels of continuing education of students.

Criminal Legal Characteristics of Subjects of Crimes Against Morality

The main problem is the relevance of the research topic. The history of the development of civilization shows that law and morality as components of the spiritual culture of society are organically linked to each other. The legal system of any state enshrines the moral requirements and moral principles that are vital for the whole society. When creating norms or improving them, the legislator must take into account the state of the public moral culture of the population so that the laws being developed are fair and perceived by members of society. Purpose: The purpose of the study is the further theoretical development of a set of criminal law issues related to determining the place of morality in the system of objects of criminal law protection, their role in the system of measures to combat crime, as well as the development on this basis of proposals and recommendations for improving criminal legislation regulating liability for attacks on public morality. Methods: Methodology and methodology of the study. The methodological basis of the study was made up of: generally recognized methods of scientific research of the phenomena of reality in their interrelation and interdependence both at the theoretical level (systemic, comparative legal, formal legal, historical methods of analysis, etc.) and at the empirical level (statistical analysis, questionnaires, research of documents, printed publications); the main provisions of the theory of criminal law, ethics, philosophy, psychology; rules of formal logic. The results and their significance: The stated circumstances, as well as the lack of elaboration and discussion of most of the provisions related to the modern legal regulation of crimes against public morality and their qualifications, determined the choice of the research topic. Crimes against morality are mostly committed intentionally. For example, involvement in prostitution, the organization of brothels for prostitution or maintenance, as well as other types of criminal acts directed against humanity (morality), are committed with direct intent. A person who organizes and maintains brothels for prostitution is aware that he is doing this for profit. Among the crimes committed against humanity (morality), animal abuse is committed mainly out of hooligan motives.