Violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules: issues of criminalization and legislative regulation

The article discusses some problems of criminalization and lawmaking in the field of countering crimes involving violations of sanitary and epidemiological rules. From the point of view of the legal and technical approach, Part 1 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation contains a construction of a complex composition, which can be called «delinquent-material». In such a composition there is both a mass disease (poisoning of people) and the threat of a mass disease (poisoning of people) they are considered not as acts, but as a socially dangerous consequence. In other words, this kind of criminal-legal construction includes, firstly, the violation of the rules itself and, secondly, socially dangerous consequences in the form of mass illness or poisoning of people or creating a real threat of the onset of these consequences. At the same time, violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules without the occurrence of socially dangerous consequences or the threat of such consequences entails administrative responsibility under Articles 6.3 — 6.7 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation.
The author notes that an act that creates a real threat to law enforcement facilities provided for in Part 1 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has a lower degree of public danger compared to such actions (inaction) that inadvertently lead to mass illness or poisoning of people. Equalizing the limits of criminal liability for the commission of the two abovementioned torts is a violation of the principle of justice. In this regard, the author of this article proposes in Part 1 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to establish responsibility for violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules if such violation created a threat of mass illness or poisoning of people. In turn, criminal liability for violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules, which inadvertently caused mass illness or poisoning of people, should be established in Part 2 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for a more severe punishment.

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