On considering the special principles of sentencing when sentencing for an act under article 270 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine

The article determines that the dominant opinion among modern scholars in the field of criminal law is the opinion that the existence of a sub-institution of special principles of sentencing is recognized. The author states the fact of theoretical and legal uncertainty of both the concept of special principles of sentencing and their types. The author emphasizes that special principles of sentencing, unlike general principles, are not applied in all cases without exception, but only in cases clearly defined by law and in relation to specific groups of people. The author also identifies the absence of a unified methodological approach to classifying certain rules of sentencing as special principles. The author concludes that the special principles of sentencing are scattered across different structural parts of the General Part of the current Criminal Code of Ukraine. Based on the analysis of more than 50 court verdicts published in the Unified Register of Court Decisions, the author analyzed the application of special principles of sentencing, namely: sentencing of a person of unsound mind; sentencing of a person who committed a criminal offense while performing a special task to prevent or detect criminal activity of an organized group or criminal organization; sentencing for an unfinished criminal offense; sentencing for a criminal offense. The analysis of these principles led to the conclusion that they are rarely used by the court when imposing punishment. Of all these principles, the most frequently used are the rules providing for the imposition of punishment for a set of criminal offenses and the imposition of punishment based on agreements. All other special principles, due to their non-use, have a low individualizing effect in sentencing for the act under Art. 270 of the CC of Ukraine. Keywords: fire safety, technogenic safety, sentencing, general principles of sentencing, special principles of sentencing, statutory requirements of fire or technogenic safety, individualization of sentencing.