The subject of this crime is a natural person
The subject of a natural person refers to a natural person who has reached the age of criminal responsibility and has the ability to bear criminal responsibility. In addition to these two conditions, some sins must have a special status.
(1) Age of criminal responsibility
The age at which the perpetrator should bear criminal responsibility for his or her criminal behavior. According to books on the physical and mental development, cultural and educational development level and intellectual development of young people
The age of criminal responsibility is divided into three stages: 1. Those who have reached the age of 16 should bear criminal responsibility, which is the age of full criminal responsibility. 2. Anyone who is over 14 years old but under 16 years old and commits intentional homicide, intentional injury, serious injury or death, rape, robbery, drug trafficking, arson, explosion, or poisoning shall bear criminal responsibility. This is the age of relative criminal liability. That is, people of this age group are only criminally responsible for certain serious crimes. 3. Under the age of 14, no matter what kind of behavior is harmful to society, they will not be held criminally responsible. They are the age at which they are completely exempt from criminal responsibility. A person who is over 14 years old but under 18 years old commits a crime and shall be given a lighter or reduced punishment. If a person under the age of 16 is not punished, his parents or guardians shall be ordered to discipline him, and if necessary, he may be taken into custody by the government. The above provisions reflect the spirit of giving priority to the education of juvenile delinquents.
(2) Criminal responsibility ability
1. The concept of criminal responsibility. Criminal liability refers to the perpetrator's ability to identify and control his or her behavior. Cognitive ability refers to the actor's ability to understand the nature, results and significance of his specific behavior; control ability refers to the actor's ability to control himself to perform or not perform a specific behavior. The ability to identify is closely related to the ability to control. The ability to identify is the basis and premise of control ability. Without the ability to identify, there is no ability to control. The ability to control reflects the ability to identify. The ability to control indicates that the perpetrator has the ability to identify. But in some cases, a discerning person may lose control for one reason or another. The so-called criminal responsibility ability refers to having both the ability to identify and the ability to control; if you lack one of the abilities, you will not be criminally responsible. 2. Determination of criminal liability. People who have reached the age of criminal responsibility usually have the ability to be criminally responsible, so the judgment of criminal responsibility is only a negative judgment. When judging the criminal liability of an actor, attention should be paid to the following issues: (1) For the judgment of irresponsibility, both medical standards and psychological standards should be used. That is, first determine whether the perpetrator has a mental illness, and secondly determine whether the perpetrator cannot recognize or control his behavior due to mental illness. The former is identified by a psychiatrist, and the latter is judged by judicial staff. When judicial staff judge whether a mental patient has the ability to be responsible, in addition to paying attention to the expert's appraisal conclusion, judicial staff should also pay attention to the following points: First, they should pay attention to examining the type and severity of mental illness, because the type and severity of mental illness It is of great significance to determine whether a mental patient has the ability to take responsibility. Second, we need to investigate the words, deeds, and mental state of the mentally ill people in our neighbors. Third, it is necessary to further determine whether the behavior of mental patients is directly related to their mental illness. (2) An intermittent mentally ill person who commits a crime while in a normal state of mind shall bear criminal responsibility. That is to say, if an intermittent mentally ill person is mentally normal and has the ability to identify and control when committing a behavior, he should be held criminally responsible; on the other hand, if the behavior is abnormal and he does not have the ability to identify and control, the behavior does not constitute a crime, and therefore he will not be held liable. criminal responsibility. It can be seen that whether the behavior of an intermittent mental patient constitutes a crime should be based on whether he has the ability to take responsibility when committing the behavior, rather than whether he is mentally normal during the investigation, prosecution, and trial. (3) A mentally ill person who has not completely lost the ability to identify or control his own behavior shall bear criminal responsibility for committing a crime, but may be given a lighter or reduced punishment. (4) A drunk person shall bear criminal responsibility for committing a crime. (5) A deaf-mute or blind person who commits a crime may be given a lighter, reduced or exempted punishment.
(3) Special subjects
Special subjects Special subjects refer to criminal subjects who have a certain identity and have an important impact on their qualifications as criminal subjects. Specific identities can be divided into: 1. Natural identity and legal identity. Natural identity refers to the identity given by natural factors.
For example, based on the fact that gender can be divided into men and women, some crimes, such as rape, can only be the subject of the crime. Legal identity refers to the identity formed by people based on the law. Such as military personnel, state agency staff, judicial staff, etc. 2. Conviction status and sentencing status. Convicting identity refers to the identity that determines the existence of criminal liability, also known as the identity that constitutes the elements of a crime. This identity is an essential element of the criminal subject in the composition of certain specific crimes. Sentencing status refers to the status that affects the degree of criminal responsibility, also known as the status of penalty addition or subtraction. Although this status does not affect the existence of criminal liability, it does affect the size of criminal liability, which is expressed as the basis for heavier, lighter, mitigated or even exempted punishment.
Edit paragraph 3. The subject of this crime is the unit
The subject of the unit refers to companies, enterprises, institutions, agencies, and groups that commit acts that endanger society and should bear criminal responsibility according to law. The concept of a unit is broader than a legal person, and in addition to legal persons, it also includes unincorporated organizations. Although the word "unit" was related to books in social life in the past
It was once widely used and even a highly used term, but strictly speaking, it is not a legal term. In other words, the word unit has no precise legal meaning. According to Article 30 of the Criminal Law, units in the concept of unit crimes refer to companies, enterprises, institutions, agencies, and groups, and are also the subjects of unit crimes.
(1) Company
A company refers to a for-profit legal person organization established in accordance with legal procedures, including joint stock companies and limited liability companies. A limited liability company refers to a company in which all shareholders are responsible for repaying the company's debts to the extent of their capital contribution. A joint stock limited company refers to a company initiated and established by a certain number of shareholders, with all its capital divided into shares, and the shareholders bear property liability with the purchased shares. The company is the subject of a common unit crime.
(2) Enterprise
An enterprise refers to an economic organization established in accordance with the law and having a certain organizational form, with the purpose of profit, and independently engaged in commodity production and business activities and commercial services. Enterprises have the following characteristics: First, from the perspective of the social nature of enterprises, enterprises are independent economic organizations engaged in commodity production and business activities and commercial services. Second, for the purpose of enterprise survival and development, enterprises are profit-making economic organizations. The so-called profit-making refers to the entity's pursuit of excess profits through its own activities, which is one of the most important characteristics of an enterprise. Third, from the perspective of the legal conditions for the existence of an enterprise, the enterprise must be established in accordance with the law and have a certain legal form. This is the legal characteristic of the enterprise. As the subject of unit crimes, enterprises must also have the characteristics of enterprises.
(3) Public institutions
Public institutions refer to organizations established in accordance with laws or administrative orders and engaged in various social functions. Public institutions can be divided into three types: First, national public institutions. Such institutions rely on the national budget to engage in activities, and their leaders have the right to handle funds independently. They can directly participate in civil activities related to their own business and rights, enjoy civil rights, and assume economic responsibilities. Therefore, in theory, such a state agency is called a legal person state agency. The second is collective institutions. This kind of institution can be divided into two types: one is an institution that is collectively funded by the working people, operates independently, and is responsible for its own profits and losses. The other is a public institution allocated by a collective enterprise budget, which can handle its own funds and be responsible for its own profits and losses. Theoretically, this kind of collective public institution is also called a collective public institution legal person. The third type is private institutions. This kind of institution is an institution established by private investment to engage in certain social activities. With the transformation of our country's society, various private institutions have emerged or are emerging, such as private medical institutions, educational institutions, etc. Public institutions belong to the category of legal persons and can become the subject of corporate crimes. Analysis Chart of Criminal Subjects
(4) Organs
As the subject of unit crimes, agencies can be divided into broad and narrow senses. Broadly speaking, the organs here include national administrative organs, legislative organs, judicial organs, military forces, political parties and other related organs. In a narrow sense, the agencies here mainly refer to administrative agencies, usually local state administrative agencies. According to the provisions of our country's criminal law, agencies can become the subject of unit crimes.
(5) Organization
Groups, also known as social groups, refer to various mass organizations. For example, people's mass organizations (trade unions, Communist Youth League, Women's Federation, etc.), social welfare organizations, academic research groups, cultural and art groups, religious groups, etc.
The common characteristics of these groups are: first, they are voluntarily formed by citizens or legal persons, in line with the spirit of our country’s constitution, and in order to achieve certain goals; second, they establish property and activity funds funded by participating members or the state. These funds themselves belong to social groups (except for special funds stipulated by law) and bear their debt responsibilities; third, members participate in the management of organizational affairs; fourth, charters are formulated and all activities can be carried out only after being reviewed and registered by the national competent authorities. The reason why a social organization is a legal person is that it has its own independent property and can enjoy property rights in the process of completing its tasks. Therefore, groups can also become the subject of unit crimes.
This paragraph improves the legislation on the concept of unit crime and its subject scope
Although my country's Criminal Code stipulates the general principles of unit crime in the special section of the general provisions, it does not adopt a legislative approach to There are formal and clear regulations on unit crimes and corresponding crimes, which provide a strong legal basis for punishing unit crimes. However, in criminal law theory and practice, there are still differences and deficiencies on many specific issues regarding unit crimes. Here, I will only try to talk about the concept of unit crime subject and the legislative improvement of the subject scope: (1) Accurately define the concept of unit crime. Article 30 of the "Criminal Law" stipulates: "Companies, enterprises, institutions, agencies, and groups that commit acts that endanger society shall bear criminal responsibility." Although this provision defines the scope of unit criminal entities and emphasizes the principle of legality of crime and punishment, But it is obviously not the concept of unit crime, and the provisions are relatively general. They have adopted an evasive attitude towards issues such as the principle of criminalization and only made relatively vague provisions to make them practical. Regarding the concept of unit crime, criminal law theoretical circles have many views on this issue. The author believes that this definition is more appropriate: unit crimes are expressly stipulated in the criminal law. In order to seek illegal benefits for the unit, companies, enterprises, institutions, social groups, etc., after research and determination by the unit or after being determined by the unit, their representatives or directly Behaviors that are harmful to society carried out by responsible personnel in business activities. (2) Accurately define the scope of unit criminal entities. The first is to exclude agencies from being the subject of unit crimes through the amendment of the criminal law. At the same time, it is necessary to comprehensively reflect on the problems encountered in dealing with unit crimes since the implementation of the Criminal Code, summarize which problems are caused by the improper provisions of the Criminal Code on unit crimes, and revise the regulations on unit crimes on this basis. Second, eliminate the phenomenon of the two concepts "company" and "enterprise" appearing simultaneously in the concept of unit crime. A company refers to an economic organization that organizes production and business activities for the purpose of profit. According to the provisions of my country's Company Law, it includes two forms: a joint stock company and a limited liability company. Enterprises refer to a type of for-profit social and economic organization that takes production, circulation, and technology as its content and aims to obtain profits, increase accumulation, and create social wealth. Logically speaking, an enterprise is a concept, a company is a general concept, and a company is an organizational form of an enterprise. They are inclusive and should not be juxtaposed. Third, appropriately add other organizations and add some new crimes. Because in practice, the scope of unit crimes is not limited to the scope of the existing criminal law, and the provisions of the criminal law on the five types of subjects are indeed too simple. In the future, special units such as "unit branches" and "village committees" can be considered to be included in the scope of the subject to enhance the operability of criminal justice. This is indeed what the situation requires. It is also recommended to add some new crimes. For example, in some new computer crimes, such as online infringement of intellectual property rights, online dissemination of obscene materials, and e-commerce crimes (including e-commerce fraud, contract fraud, online shopping fraud, etc.), units will inevitably commit crimes for the utilitarian purpose of illegal gains. The crimes involved in these new areas are more malicious and harmful. In view of the fact that our country's criminal law does not provide for the implementation of computer crimes by units, resulting in impunity and judicial practice being unworkable. Therefore, the author suggests that our country’s criminal legislation should establish new criminal charges for new crimes in these new fields, and naturally include units into the subject scope of such crimes, and correspondingly expand the types of penalties for unit crimes, such as adding permanent or limited-time prohibitions from practicing etc., to meet the needs of social development.