On the issue of provocation of a crime in Russian criminal law 

Anna S. Titova, Adjunct, Moscow University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation named after V.Ya. Kikotya (4 Okruzhnoy passage, Moscow, Russia); legal adviser, Legal Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russian Federation for Moscow Region (3 Nikitskiy lane, Moscow, Russia), 4163458@mail.ru 

Background. Recently, the study of the issue of liability for provocation of a crime has become widely popular. Russian legislation does not clearly define provocation of a crime. However, Article 304 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation prohibits provocation in relation to certain criminal acts. Nevertheless, in practice, cases of provocation to other crimes are increasingly encountered. Difficulties arise in the legal assessment of such acts, which is due to the lack of a legal definition of provocation, as well as the un-certainty of its legal essence. The purpose of the study is to determine the essence of provo-cation of a crime as a criminal law category and to propose its definition. Materials and methods. The objectives of the study were achieved by examining various views on the provocation of a crime by authoritative experts in the field of criminal law, analyzing the norms of the current criminal law and the Federal Law “On operational-search activityˮ dated 12.08.1995 No. 144-FZ in terms of the issue under consideration, studying materials of judicial practice illustrating examples of the qualification of actions related to the provocation of a crime. When writing the work, the author used general scientific methods of cognition – deduction, induction, generalization and synthesis, as well as special ones – formal-logical, document analysis method, linguistic. Results. During the study, the issue of provocation of a crime as a criminal-legal phenomenon was examined, its legal essence was revealed, and an original interpretation of this criminal-legal category was formulated. Conclusions. By analyzing criminal legislation, theoretical concepts and court decisions, we come to the conclusion that provocation of a crime as a criminal-legal category has features characteristic of complicity in a crime. In this context, actions aimed at provoking a crime can be considered as incitement to a criminal act.  

provocation of a crime, persuasion, complicity, incitement, qualification of the crime, judicial practice 

Titova A.S. On the issue of provocation of a crime in Russian criminal law. Izvestiya vysshikh uchebnykh zavedeniy. Povolzhskiy region. Obshchestvennye nauki = University proceedings. Volga region. Social sciences. 2024;(2):175–182. (In Russ.). doi: 10.21685/2072-3016-2024-2-15