Systematization of the characteristics differentiating responsibility for crimes against freedom, honor, and dignity of the individual (Chapter 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

The article examines the issue of systematizing the characteristics that differentiate responsibility for crimes against the freedom, honor, and dignity of individuals, as specified in Chapter 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. These crimes affect fundamental intangible values of the individual, enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation as the highest value. The subject of analysis is the normative constructions that reflect differences in the degree of public danger of encroachments on these values, as well as the structural features of qualifying and especially qualifying signs. Special attention is given to identifying gaps, disproportions, and internal contradictions in criminal law regulation, which hinder the uniform application of the law and violate the principles of justice and legality. The study covers both the general structure of the elements of crimes and the specifics of particular differentiating features distributed across the elements of the offense: the object, the objective side, the subjective side, and the subject. The work employs a combination of general scientific and special legal methods, including analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, a systematic-structural method, a formal-legal method, and comparative legal analysis. The author substantiates the need for classification of differentiating features by elements of the crime (the object, the objective side, the subjective side, and the subject) as the most adequate methodological approach, allowing for the identification of structural features and gaps in criminal law protection of the indicated intangible values. A systemic analysis of disproportions in the normative fixation of qualifying features within Chapter 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is conducted for the first time, including asymmetry in accounting for the threat of violence, ignoring the specifics of the digital environment when committing crimes, inconsistency in the wording of consequences resulting from negligence, as well as gaps in the protection of vulnerable categories of victims. Based on the conducted research, a set of proposals has been formulated for improving criminal legislation. The results of the study have theoretical significance for the development of criminal law doctrine and possess practical importance for ensuring uniform and fair qualification of crimes against the freedom, honor, and dignity of the individual.