The criminal legal significance of the victim's will for the recognition of his criminal procedural status

Subject. The article is devoted to the issue of the legal significance of the victim's consent to harm and the impact of this circumstance on his criminal procedural status.The purpose of the article is to propose an algorithm for determining the signs of the victim's free will to recognize his criminal procedural status.The methodology. The authors used the axiological, dogmatic, comparative legal method, as well as the method of induction, deduction, and analogy.The main results. A victim is a person whose rights and legitimate interests have been affected as a result of a crime committed. However, there is a long-term discussion in the scientific literature regarding the issue of recognizing the victim's consent to harm as a sign characterizing the victim, on which the criminal legal consequences and the criminal procedural recognition of a person as a victim depend. The Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated May 25, 2023 No. 26-P updated this issue. The essence of the decision is that a minor involved in the commission of a crime by an adult must be recognized as a victim under Article 150 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Currently, investigative and judicial practice is following the path of recognizing such persons as witnesses with appropriate "curtailed" criminal procedural rights.Conclusions. The freedom of will of the victim, being legally neutral for the criminal legal assessment of the actions of the perpetrator, nevertheless has a number of legislative exceptions that affect the recognition of the act as criminal, on the qualification, on the amount of punishment. The participation of a minor in a crime or the commission of antisocial acts under the influence of an adult should be the basis for recognizing a minor as a victim, regardless of the intensity of the adult's influence. The commission of similar actions by an adult under the influence of third parties must be assessed based on the intensity of such exposure.