Social Danger of Crimes Against Property: Legislative and Law Enforcement Aspects

Problem statement: the article, based on doctrinal approaches to understanding the sign of social danger of a crime, examines the issue of compliance of Chapter 21 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and judicial practice with the criteria of social danger of crimes against property. The purpose of the study is to develop proposals for improving the norms of the criminal law on crimes against property and for the qualification of relevant criminal acts in accordance with the criteria of their social danger. Objectives of the study: 1) analysis of doctrinal approaches to understanding the sign of social danger of a crime; 2) to assess the compliance of legislative structures of crimes against property with the criteria of their social danger; 3) to identify the criteria used in judicial practice that influence the degree of social danger of crimes against property. Conclusions. The economic size of property damage is not the only criterion for the social danger of crimes against property. Taking into account the decrease in the consumer value of the ruble, it is proposed to increase the criterion for distinguishing criminally punishable theft from petty theft to five thousand rubles, and the amount of significant damage to a citizen – to ten thousand rubles. Periodic changes in the boundaries of such crime-forming and qualifying features of crimes against property as “large” and “especially large” size are necessary, depending on the level of inflation and a decrease in the consumer value of the ruble, for example, when the value of the ruble is reduced by half in relation to the period when the corresponding sizes were established by the legislator. If the amount of property damage does not exceed ten thousand rubles, the author proposes to necessarily consider in law enforcement activities the issue of the possibility of recognizing an act containing all the elements of a crime as insignificant.