On Legal Regulation of Criminal Liability for Rioting

the article considers problems related to the criminal law qualification of mass riots with an emphasis on crimes committed in penitentiary institutions. Purpose: on the basis of a comprehensive study of the norms of criminal law regulation and the practice of applying legislation in relation to mass riots, to develop proposals for improving norms stipulating liability for rioting. Methods: structural-logical, inductive-deductive, comparative-legal, statistical, sociological, etc. Results: general description of the state and dynamics of mass riots is given and controversial issues of the concepts “mass riots” and “destruction of property” are considered. Drawbacks in normative statements and alogisms in the formulation of concepts are revealed, in particular, disproportion of definitions used in the law and tautology. Controversial issues of elements of the composition of mass riots are studied. Conclusion: based on the norms of criminal law and extensive empirical material, possible directions for improving qualification of mass riots committed, including in penitentiary institutions, by persons serving criminal sentences are outlined. The necessity to improve and clarify the conceptual apparatus used in the criminal law norm regulating liability for rioting is emphasized. Proposals for betterment of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are made. The concept of mass characterization in the qualification of riots is proposed. There is a need to include the concept of “mass riots” in the form of a note in Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. A distinction is made between criminally punishable mass riots and mass riots punishable by administrative proceedings. The necessity of specifying the types of violence included in the composition of criminally punishable mass riots is proved. The definition of pogrom and its differences from violence in mass riots are formulated. In the disposition of Part 1 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is proposed to include not only the destruction, but also damage to property during mass riots.