Today, in legal science, in practice, the construction of the legal structure of an offense serves as an important mechanism. It is a combination of sufficient and necessary in accordance with applicable law elements or conditions of a subjective and objective nature to determine an unlawful act as an offense.
Composition of the offense: concept and elements
The composition of the offense should be understood as a system of elements sufficient and necessary to determine the actions committed as an offense and, therefore, to apply legal liability to the offender. It is important to note that in it absolutely all the characteristics of the latter are rigidly grouped. Moreover, they are tied to the elements of the offense. You need to know that the structure of this category includes four components. Among them, the subjective side, the objective side, subject and object. It will be advisable to consider the concept and the main elements of the administrative offense in more detail.
Constituent offenses
You need to know that the components of the offense given in the previous chapter are necessary in the sense that, in the absence of all of them in the aggregate, the committed act cannot actually qualify as an offense. The existing elements of the offense are sufficient, since it eliminates the need to establish any additional characteristics of the offense in order to prosecute a person for the implemented offense.
Object of offense
For a full understanding of the topic, it would be advisable to consider all the components of the aggregate separately. As it turned out, an element of the administrative offense is its object. The object of the offense should be understood as social relations, values and interests protected by law, regarding which the offense by the offender is relevant.
It should be noted that, one way or another, they are being harmed. In legal norms, this element of the offense is determined in any case. It can be human health or life, economic activity, property, state security, and so on. So, when indicating the values to which the offense of an unlawful nature is directed, the object in any case reflects the social harmfulness of the offense.
The objective side of the offense
The characteristic of the elements of the offense suggests that in the system under consideration an important component is its objective side. It is important to know that the latter defines an offense as an act of behavior, an act. It is formed by the very action of an unlawful nature; negative consequences that were caused; causal relationship between them and, accordingly, the act.
You need to know that the characteristic of the considered element of the offense, one way or another, is formed through regulatory legal acts. Among them, it is important to highlight inaction or action, place, method, circumstances of its implementation, the severity of the harm that was caused, and so on.It should be noted that the composition of the offenses, and therefore the measures of responsibility used, are different, which depends on the absence or presence of elements of the objective side established by the current law.
Example
In this chapter, it would be advisable to give an example of an objective element of the administrative offense considered earlier. So, depending on the amount of tax that has not been paid, an act of a citizen may be recognized as a crime or tax violation.
If the amount of tax that has not been paid by an individual exceeds 200 minimum wages, one way or another, the act will be considered as tax evasion in large amounts, and also be endowed with signs of corpus delicti, as provided for in Art. 198 of the Criminal Code and entails the use of criminal liability. When the amount of tax that has not been paid exceeds 500 minimum wages, the evasion of a citizen from paying tax payments is realized in a particularly large amount. In any case, this forms a qualified corpus delicti, as provided for in Art. 198 of the Criminal Code and entails a more serious punishment than in the case of tax evasion in a large amount. If the amount of unpaid tax is less than 200 times the minimum wage, then the corresponding act is not a crime, but an offense of a tax nature, which means that it involves not criminal penalties, but tax sanctions.
It is important to know!
As can be seen from the above example, the same misconduct can be qualified in different ways, which depends primarily on the amount of harm that was caused, that is, on the severity of the actual consequences. It is important to know that the following factors may have a similar effect on the use of certain liability measures and the preceding qualification of the offense:
- Method of committing an offense (by a group of persons, using their own office space, again).
- Place of the offense (in the occupied territory, on the territory of the reserve).
- The circumstances of the offense (in a military situation, in wartime, as a result of a combination of difficult circumstances).
Material factors
It is important to know that in some formulations the factors presented in the previous chapter are usually called material. A necessary sign of the elements of an administrative offense is the harmful consequences recorded in the legal norm. It should be borne in mind that such offenses are considered to be realized only upon the occurrence of the consequences specified in the law. In this case, it is necessary to establish a causal relationship between them and the act of the person. On the contrary, in offenses of a formal nature, the consequences are not among the mandatory characteristics of the objective side and, accordingly, do not play any role in resolving the issue of qualification of actions and responsibilities.
Subject of offense
As it turned out, the number of elements of an administrative offense (CAO) includes its subject. Today he is interpreted as a competent person who committed an illegal action (inaction). It is obvious that the presented component captures such a characteristic of the offense as the legal capacity of the person who committed the act. In various legal sectors, the issue of the subject of the offense is solved by various methods.
It is important to keep in mind that the subject of a crime can be an exclusively sane citizen who has reached a certain age. It is necessary to add that today organizations and competent citizens can be the subjects of civil, tax or administrative offenses.
additional information
It should be borne in mind that the general condition for holding individuals accountable today is their sanity, in other words, their mental state in relation to their level of development and health, which allows them to realize their own actions (inaction), control them and, of course, bear the corresponding legal a responsibility. It is precisely because of the absence of this element of the composition of an individual’s act that may be considered insane (incompetent), the offense becomes irrelevant.
The second factor in recognizing an individual as the subject of an offense is his age. In addition, at present, specific laws are established by the applicable law regarding the subjects of certain offenses, in other words, it is assumed that a specific offense can only be committed by a special entity - a military serviceman, official, witness, and so on.
Subjective side
You need to know that the subjective aspect of the offense is characterized precisely by the fault of the offender, and therefore, consists in accordance with the guilty sign. Guilt as a person’s mental attitude towards a realized act can be endowed with various forms, including negligence and intent.
It should be borne in mind that the offense is considered intentional when the person who committed it fully realized the wrongfulness of his own act, foresaw, wanted or consciously allowed the onset of consequences harmful to society or had an indifferent attitude to them.
It is interesting to add that, depending on the subjective attitude towards the harmful consequences of one’s own actions (inaction), intent is classified as indirect (unwillingness, ignoring or knowingly assuming consequences) and direct (desire for consequences). As an example of a deliberate violation, it would be advisable to consider the implementation of established samples of excisable marketable products subject to labeling without such labeling.
Carelessness, in one way or another, is distinguished by the fact that the offender does not want the consequences dangerous to society as a whole or certain social groups, however, he either foresees them, but without sufficient reason hopes to eliminate, or does not foresee, harmful to society result, although he could have done it. For example, a tourist who has not put out a bonfire on a halt understands that as a result of such a dangerous action a fire can occur that destroys forest plantations in one way or another, nevertheless, he hopes for foresters, possible rain or natural fire extinguishing . It is important to note that in such a case, the calculation is regarded as erroneous, because there were no grounds for it, which are sufficient.
So, to bring to justice absolutely any person, it is necessary to characterize the subjective aspect of the offender, in other words, to establish the actual existence of guilt in the committed act.
Classification of Offenses
In the final chapter, it would be appropriate to consider the types of offenses that exist today. It is important to note that they are classified in accordance with two key bases: their nature and degree of danger with respect to both society as a whole and individual public groups. Thus, by the nature of the offense are divided into disciplinary, administrative, criminal and civil. According to the criterion of the degree of public danger, the following types of offenses are distinguished: criminal offenses and offenses, which include civil, administrative and disciplinary components.