Individualization of criminal punishment for accomplices of a crime
Relevance: the analysis of the practice of sentencing accomplices of a crime remains a significant problem of modern science. The range of judgments expressed here is very wide - from the need for a normative limitation of the punishability of complicity to the exclusion of the rules for sentencing accomplices from the law. However, such proposals are rarely based on evidence reflecting the practice of punishing accomplices. Objectives: to conduct a study of the practice of sentencing accomplices of a crime and, on this basis, to determine possible prospects for improving the normative basis for the individualization of punishment to accomplices. Methodology: on the basis of the dialectical principle of the unity of theory and practice, the possibilities of documentary and statistical analysis of judicial practice are used. Conclusions: the punishment of accomplices in reality differs insignificantly in the direction of mildness from the punishment of the perpetrators of the crime, and in certain cases even exceeds the severity of the punishment assigned to the perpetrator of the crime. This makes it possible, on the one hand, to justify the lack of formal restrictions on punishment of accomplices, and on the other hand, it requires adjusting the general principles of sentencing accomplices in the direction of their specification. This specification can be achieved, firstly, by taking into account the social danger of a crime committed by accomplices, secondly, by recognizing the increased social danger of any crime committed in complicity, and thirdly, by differentiating the assessment of the nature and degree of the person's actual participation in commission of a crime, depending on the role he performs.