Criminal Law Signs of a Criminal Community (Criminal Organization) and their Correlation with the Signs other Forms of Complicity

The paper, based on the interrelated provisions of Art. 35 and Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, examines the criteria for distinguishing such a form of complicity as a criminal community (criminal organization). The study has taken into account the diversity of points of view of domestic scientists who covered the problematic issues of the content and qualification of organized criminal activity. In the context of the Decree of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of June 10, 2010 No. 12 “On judicial practice in considering criminal cases on the organization of a criminal community (criminal organization) or participation in it” and a number of court decisions, the author determines the most typical features of this criminal association. Based on the analysis of the stages of constructing a criminal community (criminal organization), there is a low probability of qualifying the interrupted creation of this form of complicity as an unconsummated crime. The main practical difficulty lies in establishing and proving its integral criminal-legal aspects (signs) at all stages of formation. This applies, firstly, to the evaluation sign of the stability of a group of persons (their consolidation), which is the basic characteristic of organized complicity. Secondly, a unified leadership of two or more organized groups or the presence in such a group of separate units that carry out their activities as part of a criminal community (criminal organization) is mandatory. Therefore, characterization of roles of its organizers and participants is possible only if the management hierarchy of the consolidated association of accomplices included in the structural divisions is proved, which, in turn, is associated with their activities to achieve the goals provided for in Part 4 of Art. 35 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Consequently, bringing the perpetrators to criminal liability under Parts 1 and 2 of Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is actually due to the proof of the preparation or commission of planned crimes by them as members of these groups.

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