Repeat offenders - who are they? What does the relapse law say? What is the difference between repeat offenders and law-abiding citizens? This is evidenced by the article.
The concept of relapse
In the Criminal Code you will not find a normative definition of the concept of “recidivist” or “criminal recidivist”, but "Relapse of crimes" found easily. Thus, the focus is not on the identity of the offender, but directly on the acts committed by him.
One of the articles of the Criminal Code recognizes as a recidivism of crimes a socially dangerous action prohibited by criminal law, committed intentionally and repeatedly.
Consequently, a repeat offender is one who has already committed a crime, has been punished for it and has committed it again. As a rule, the most recurrent are crimes directed against property or against public order. These include theft, robbery, robbery, hooliganism. Crimes directed against the person (for example, murder) are more rarely committed by repeat offenders.
The legislator divided unlawful acts into light crimes of medium gravity, grave (grave) and especially grave. The type and term of punishment depends on the severity of the crimes. In jurisprudence, the concepts of “relapse”, “dangerous relapse” and “especially dangerous relapse” are divided. This is done in order to distinguish between the public danger of criminal acts, which allows a more balanced approach to sentencing persons who have violated the law.
Signs of Relapse
- Committing crimes intentionally; acts committed by negligence are not a relapse.
- The systematic nature of acts expressly prohibited by criminal law (that is, committed two or more times).
- The defendant already has a criminal record, not withdrawn and not canceled by the time the case is examined.
- Acts committed by a person after reaching the age of 18.
Signs of a dangerous relapse
If one person has committed two or more serious crimes or acts of moderate severity, then he is a dangerous recidivist. This is a citizen who:
- He committed a new serious crime for which real deprivation of liberty is provided, moreover, he was previously convicted of committing a deliberate crime of moderate severity, for which he served his sentence in the colony. For example, he committed theft with illegal entry into the premises.
- He committed a new crime related to grave, moreover, he had previously been convicted of a particularly grave or grave act and was punished with imprisonment. The category of serious crime includes the deliberate infliction of harm to the health of the victim.
A particularly dangerous recidivist
The Criminal Code places the concept of especially dangerous relapse in a separate category. A particularly dangerous recidivist is the person who committed a new serious crime, and was previously convicted of serious or especially serious criminal acts. The latter include crimes, punishment for which is provided in the form of imprisonment for a term of more than ten years. Such actions include banditry.
But if, before the new conviction, the offender committed a crime of low severity for which he had already been punished, or the crime had been committed before the age of 18 years, or the sentence was conditional, or a delay was given, or there was a conviction already taken or canceled, then a person will not be recognized as a repeat offender.
Personal characteristics of a recidivist
All people are different.But why do some work, thanks to their characteristics, achieve material wealth, while others prefer to pursue them in a criminal way? Let's consider in more detail.
A repeat offender is first and foremost one who is constantly ready to commit criminal acts. His personality characteristics have the same characteristics as the personality of the criminal in general. Nevertheless, some facets of the psychology of a repeat offender differ from the characteristics of the person who transgressed the law for the first time.
The personality of the recidivist is most clearly manifested in her moral views and attitudes. There is a complete absence of social values, interconnections and rules of behavior accepted in society in relation to the family, respect for others and, oddly enough, for ourselves. In the intellectual sphere, these people have a rather low educational and cultural level, knowledge is limited, and interests are narrow. A feeling like kindness is replaced by cruelty, hard work replaces the parasitic way of life, instead of humanity, heartlessness is manifested.
The emotional and volitional sphere of criminals also has some features. They are characterized by high excitability, inability to control themselves, correctly understand and control their emotions.
Repeat offender and society
A social characteristic of relapse is its increased social danger. The commission of criminal acts repeatedly testifies to the persistent antisocial orientation of the individual, his open, undisguised identity, contrasting himself with the accepted order in society and stubbornly continuing illegal activities, despite the penalties taken. Relapse is a painful social problem that does not have a quick fix.
Basically, a recidivist is a person who was educated in a penal colony, unmarried, having work experience disproportionate with age, with an inadequate correlation of needs and ways of satisfying them. He is characterized by lack of spirituality, antisocial spending of free time, abuse of alcohol.
For those who are interested in the life of people who knowingly or by will of fate violate the law, they can turn to a book, whose name is “Notes of a repeat offender”. It is written roughly and harshly. The authors - Evgeny Goncharevsky and Victor Ponomarev - believe that the life of the criminal, full of misadventures, cannot be described in a different way. According to readers, the protagonist, who spent several decades in prison, causes condemnation and ... compassion. Compassion for a person whose life was predetermined by circumstances and era.
It seems that the roots of this behavior lie primarily in the family and the environment of a growing member of society.
