THE DEGREE OF PUBLIC DANGER AS A QUANTITATIVE CRITERION FOR ASSESSING PUNISHMENT

The relevance of the study is due to the absence in criminal law theory and law enforcement practice of clear quantitative criteria for determining the degree of public danger of a crime, despite the recognition of this characteristic as one of the significant circumstances considered in sentencing. The main goal of the study is to define the content of the degree of public danger as a quantitative indicator of the public danger of a crime and to substantiate its significance for the individualization of punishment. The article examines the problems of distinguishing between the nature and degree of public danger, determining the circumstances that influence the degree of public danger, and the possibility of formalizing its quantitative expression. The study employed the universal dialectical method, general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and a systematic approach, as well as specific scientific methods of formal-legal and comparative-legal analysis; provisions of criminal legislation, scholarly approaches to determining the nature and degree of public danger, and law-enforcement materials were examined. The article considers the philosophical foundations of the category of quantity, quantitative criteria for individual elements of a crime, doctrinal approaches to the factors influencing the degree of public danger, and the relationship between the nature and degree of public danger in sentencing. It is substantiated that the degree of public danger has no universal numerical expression and is determined by the totality of quantitative and other legally significant circumstances of a particular crime. The study concludes that the nature and degree of public danger should be distinguished functionally: the nature primarily reflects the qualitative criminallaw characteristics of the act and is taken into account through legal classification and the statutory limits of the sanction, whereas the degree of public danger is of decisive importance for individualizing the specific type and severity of punishment. The article substantiates the advisability of retaining reference to both the nature and degree of public danger in Part Three of Article 60 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation while preventing double counting of the same circumstances.