A Perpetrator

Abstract

This article discusses the types of perpetrators listed in the existing Russian penal legislation including a perpetrator, a co-perpetrator, a non-apparent wrongdoer. An actual perpetrator is a person who directly commits an offense, i.e. a person who independently commits a certain crime under one of the articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, particularly an act covering the actus reus of the corpus delicti. A co-perpetrator is a person who along with other perpetrators has fully or partially carried out the actus reus of a certain corpus delicti provided for by the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. A non-apparent wrongdoer is characterized by the fact that he performs the actus reus of a certain corpus delicti by means of using other persons who are not subjected to criminal liability because they are not subjects of a crime (e.g. have not reached the age of criminal responsibility, insanity) or because of other circumstances (for example, circumstances excluding the criminality of an act). The article critically interprets the practice of qualifying the actions of accomplices in a crime as the actions of a perpetrator.