The constructional elements of the crime will be presented below. The courts of lower instances sometimes use some simplifications and do not get into these elements by slipping only after them. For example, wine should be subject to a special analysis, and the courts often omit this issue, summing it up to one general sentence. “Under these conditions, both the accused’s fault and the circumstances of committing the offense assigned to him do not raise doubts.” There is often no examination and reference to the accused’s consciousness and will, which lawyers pay special attention to.
An offense is a human act forbidden under the penalty of a law in force at the time of its commission, unlawful, culpable and socially harmful to a degree greater than negligible. These premises of criminal responsibility must occur jointly, and the absence of even one of them means that the act can not be considered a crime.
Man’s act – according to the general principle, only man can be the subject of rights and obligations, therefore, only he can be held criminally liable.
An act prohibited by the law in force at the time it was committed
An act prohibited by the law in force at the time it was committed – the basic rule is to consider the act in the light of the regulations in force at the time when the offense was committed. In addition, there are also situations strictly defined in the Act, for which other provisions are applied, so-called intertemporal.
Unlawfulness of an act
Unlawfulness of an act – this behavior that exhausts the statutory features of a prohibited act, and thus manifests itself in violation of the prohibition or order provided for by criminal law (eg penal code, act on counteracting drug addiction and a number of other special acts).
In order for a crime to occur, there must be fault – despite the lack of a legal definition, it can be interpreted as a psychic survival of the perpetrator, against a prohibited act or personal allegation of an act committed.
The offense will not be committed by the perpetrator who can not be blamed.
We distinguish between intentional guilt, if the perpetrator intends to commit a crime, that is, he wants to commit it ( direct intention) or by foreseeing the possibility that he will commit a crime, he agrees (it is possible ).
We also distinguish unintentional guilt, which occurs when the perpetrator, not intending to commit a crime, commits them as a result of not cautioning which is required in given circumstances from the average person, even though he could predict or predict the possibility of committing a crime.
Crime also includes a socially harmful act. This social harmfulness, however, is gradual, and this means that only a socially harmful act that is more than negligible can be considered a crime. If the social harmfulness of an act is not significant, one can not say that a crime has been committed.
When assessing the social harmfulness of an act, the court takes into account the type and nature of the infringed property, the size of the damage caused or threatened, the manner and circumstances of the act, the weight of the duties infringed by the perpetrator, as well as the intention, motivation of the perpetrator, the type of violation and the degree of violation.
In addition, it is worth emphasizing that not every prohibited act is tantamount to a crime. Premises that exclude criminal liability are, for example, a defense that precludes the unlawfulness of an act, insanity in the absence of attribution of the guilty plea or the negligible social detriment of the act committed.
The basic criterion for classification of crimes is the division into crimes, that is acts punishable by imprisonment for a period of not less than 3 years or a more severe punishment and offenses, i.e. acts punishable by a fine of more than 30 daily rates, imprisonment or imprisonment exceeding one month.
An offense can consist of action (eg Article 148 of the Criminal Code – who kills…, Article 190 of the Criminal Code – who is in danger).
An offense may also consist in abandoning (failure to comply with a specific behavior required under the given circumstances – Article 162 of the Criminal Code – failure to provide assistance, Article 240 of the Criminal Code – failure to notify a crime).
It is important that forbidden acts, for example, are not thoughts, internal experiences, eg non-outward views, as well as behaviors caused by the action of absolute force or taken unconditionally.
We also divide the offense into:
- offense (the result of a prohibited act is indicated in the act, eg murder, theft theft),
- an ineffective crime (the crime is evidenced not by the result, but by the mere exhaustion of the signs of a prohibited act, e.g. a crime of making false statements),
- offense prosecuted ex officio (law enforcement agencies proceed to act when the information about the offense is usually made as a result of a complaint lodged by the victim),
- offense prosecuted by private prosecution (proceedings are initiated at the request of the victim, e.g. defamation, insult),
- basic crime (the act exhausts all the features of the crime, for example Article 148 § 1 of the Criminal Code – murder, Article 190a of the Criminal Code – stalking or persistent harassment, Article 191 of the Criminal Code – threat bezgrodo Baggins, Article 190 § 1 of the Criminal Code – threat punitive, Article 280 § 1 of the Criminal Code – robbery),
- qualified offense (in addition, the act contains features that affect the tightening of the sentence, for example, Article 148 § 2-3 of the Criminal Code – murder with particular cruelty) and privileged (additionally, the features that condition leniency, eg Article 148 § 4 – murder in affection).
With criminal liability for a committed crime, the age and sanity of the perpetrator are very important. According to criminal law, we can distinguish three age categories of the perpetrator. The first, when the perpetrator is responsible for a prohibited act, just like an adult – after the age of 17. Secondly, this limit, however, is reduced in the cases indicated in the penal code. Minors who after the age of 15 commit a prohibited act may be liable on such principles as adults, if previously used upbringing or correctional measures have been unsuccessful. The third category includes adolescents. They are perpetrators who were under 21 years of age at the time of committing a prohibited act and 24 years at the time of the first-instance judgment.
As for accountability, he does not commit a crime, who, due to mental illness, mental retardation or other disruption of mental activities, could not, at the time of the act, recognize its significance or direct its behavior. It is worth emphasizing the fact that the provisions on insanity are not applied when the perpetrator has committed into intoxication or intoxication resulting in the exclusion or limitation of the sanity, which he anticipated or could have foreseen.