READING OF ESTIMATE CONCEPTS IN CLASSIFICATION OF EXTREMISM CRIMES

Abstract

The subject of the study is social relations in the protection of an individual, the basics of constitutionality, and the security of the state. The study aims to examine the legal content of extremist motives. The objectives of the study are the following: reading of act attributes in classification of crimes committed to ignite social, racial, national, or religious discord or hatred against any social group. Methods used in the article include studying academic lawyers’ opinions on the issue and selecting and analyzing case materials. At the moment, it is difficult to provide a clear legal criterion for delimitation of positive and negative motives in classifying acts of the perpetrator under regulations with extremist motives. The law enforcer is responsible for resolving this problem by determining the content and legal value of given motives in each specific case during the investigation of a criminal case and legal proceedings. The Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has issuee the directives that propose to establish approximate criteria for distinguishing the motives of political, ideological, racial, national, or religious hatred or enmity, or hatred or enmity in relation to any social group according to a positive and/or negative orientation as applied to socially significant values. Based on the analysis of scientists’ viewpoints and judicial practice, a formalistic approach used by the law enforcer in classifying crimes with extremist motives is identified, which does not reflect the real content of acts in this category. The author substantiates that it is not recommended to classify all crimes against an individual or the security of the state for extremist reasons, despite their direct presence.