On the path of life, each person experiences the impact of certain events of a negative nature, the result of which are losses.
What is the damage?
Losses having a material and moral character can be expressed:
- a change in the state of an object, from a decrease in its properties to an absolute violation of integrity;
- deprivation of health, even death;
- social or economic costs;
- violation of the business process;
- loss of property, material, natural, historical, cultural values, financial resources;
- environmental degradation.
In other words, damage is an economically calculated consequence of an event, measured in physical or monetary terms.
Depending on the method of application, there are several types of damage.
Ecological
It represents a loss of material resources due to the deterioration of the environment. This is due to the influence of industrial production, human activities.
In sum terms, the damage (the synonym of which is the word “harm”, “loss”, “loss”, “damage”) consists of the following factors:
- number of people exposed to environmental hazards;
- the intensity of the effects of pollution;
- natural complexes exposed to harm;
- time of occurrence and duration of consequences due to pollution;
- costs of eliminating the consequences of a negative phenomenon.
Environmental damage is an approximate and unpredictable amount. It is influenced by natural chain reactions, which are difficult to predict.
In a simplified form, environmental damage is the calculation of the totality of environmental damage to land, atmosphere and hydrosphere. It is rather difficult to calculate land damage, since this value does not appear immediately, but after a prolonged period of time, and is expressed in a decrease in crop yields and forest productivity, degradation of fauna and flora.
Social
This value represents the cost losses associated with the presence of social dangers that are widespread in society and threatening the life and health of people.
Social hazards can be classified according to the following criteria:
- Ecological. Expressed as causing harm to health as a result of environmental degradation. This may be an accident of a man-made nature, release into the atmosphere or hydrosphere of harmful substances; in other words, any negative change in external conditions.
- Personal. Expressed in a psychological (blackmail, fraud, theft) and physical (banditry, robbery, hostage, rape) impact on a person.
The decisive prerequisite for the emergence of social dangers, the final link of which is the damage caused, is the imperfection of the socio-economic processes taking place in society.
The calculation of damage is made from the cost of the treatment of a person and his insurance, including:
- funds spent on all types of medical care (emergency, outpatient, inpatient, sanatorium, transport for patient delivery, epidemiological care for infectious diseases),
- payment of temporary disability benefits at the expense of the amounts social insurance and protection
- the cost of unproducted production, due to a decrease in the number of employees and loss of working time, taking into account the average rate of national income produced per worker per worker.
Economic
Closely related to the above types of damage (social and environmental), as it is their calculation in value terms. This value consists of indicators such as:
- financial losses,
- partial or complete loss of material wealth created,
- lost profits at already committed costs,
- liquidation expenses
- environmental damage
- indirect state losses caused by the retirement of labor resources,
- socio-economic losses associated with injury and loss of life.
The final figure of economic damage is calculated after the expiration of the investigation of a negative event that entailed losses of a different nature.
Moral
This type of damage is a loss of an intangible nature that occurred as a result of diminishing the honor and dignity of the person, undermining the reputation, causing physical and moral suffering caused by illegal actions of other people.
Honor is a social assessment of an individual, expressed in the objective attitude of those around him, and determining his business and moral reputation.
Dignity - a person’s awareness of his qualities, social significance, abilities and worldview.
Business reputation is an assessment of a person’s activity, confirmed by his business qualities.
Physical suffering, not being moral damage, entails it, since it is associated with poor health and negative changes in the physical condition of a person. Moral suffering consists in the psychological experiences of a person that are negative: shame, fear, humiliation, depression, mental pain.
Calculating moral damage is a rather difficult task, as it is connected with concepts of an intangible nature. In this case, it is taken into account:
- the material condition of the victim;
- the amount of monetary compensation necessary to cover negative emotions due to non-pecuniary damage, note the level of severity of moral damage, the form and duration of its manifestations;
- expenses incurred in connection with treatment, loss of capacity for work, restoration of mental health, loss of the ability to perform one’s actions before causing damage.
