Related legal principles Crime is a behavior that seriously endangers society. The criterion for establishing a crime is that the behavior complies with the provisions of the criminal law. In recent years, at the level of the National Legal Professional Qualification Examination, a question that has greatly troubled candidates is whether to adopt two levels, three levels or four elements to constitute a crime. It should be said that in any country, it is a crime for a mentally normal adult to intentionally kill another person. However, the arrangement and combination of the elements for these crimes depends on each country's own judicial habits, national concepts, and cultural traditions. Different systems of criminology were adopted. It should be said that different crime theory systems may have different ways of thinking about determining crimes, but they will not have a substantial impact on the characterization of the case. Various requirements have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Classification of crimes

(1) Theoretical classification

1. Felonies and misdemeanors. The classification is based on the severity of statutory penalties. Our country's criminal law does not clearly distinguish between felonies and misdemeanors. Theoretically, some scholars believe that crimes with a minimum statutory penalty of more than 3 years in prison can be considered as felonies.

2. Natural crimes and statutory crimes. (1) Natural crime: a traditional crime that clearly violates ethics and morals while infringing or threatening legal rights. Such as intentional homicide, robbery, rape, theft, human trafficking, etc. Because these behaviors violate the general ethics and morals in society, they have been defined as crimes throughout the ages, regardless of east or west. Even people who do not understand the law can understand its social harm based on ordinary life experience. (2) Statutory crime: a modern crime that does not obviously violate ethics and morals, but mainly violates the ruling order. Such as the crime of illegal leasing of firearms, the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits, the crime of establishing financial institutions without authorization, and the crime of illegal business operations. The distinction between natural crimes and statutory crimes has a certain degree of relativity, because even statutory crimes, after a long period of legislative provisions, people have formed a belief in abiding by them, which will form a moral conviction and gradually evolve into natural crimes. In addition, there are some natural crimes. With the changes in social conditions and changes in public values ??and moral values, the decriminalization of natural crimes will occur. For example, traditional natural crimes without victims such as gambling crimes and the crime of spreading obscene materials. As social customs change, its scope of application may be limited.

3. Gap offenders and non-gap offenders. Whether there is a distance in time or space between an action and its result. (1) Gap crime: A crime in which there is a gap in time and place between the execution of the act and the result of the crime. It can be divided into two types: time-out crime and distance crime. For example, A puts poison in B's food, and B dies five hours after eating the poison. There is a time lag between the crime and the death outcome. (2) Non-separate crime: a crime in which there is no time or place interval between the commission of the act and the result of the crime. This division has a certain meaning. For example, for intermittent offenders, if after the criminal act is completed, before the criminal result appears, a suspension behavior can be implemented to prevent the completed result from appearing, and then the crime suspension is established.

4. Instant crime, status crime, and continuing crime. (1) Conviction. Once the infringement of legal interests occurs, the crime will be terminated at the same time; once the crime is terminated, the legal interests will be eliminated at the same time. --Intentional homicide. (2) Status offender. After the criminal act is over, the harmful consequences continue to exist. -- Larceny. (3) Continuing crime: The criminal behavior and harmful consequences continue to exist at the same time. --Illegal detention, trafficking in women and children, kidnapping, harboring, and illegal possession of firearms. All crimes that infringe on personal freedom (such as illegal detention, kidnapping, and trafficking in women) and possession crimes (such as possession of counterfeit currency, illegal possession of firearms) will continue to be committed. In a continuing crime, as long as the criminal behavior continues until it is over, people who join in midway can establish a joint crime.

[Typical case] A, for the purpose of betrayal, abducted Otome to another place, imprisoned her in a basement, and raped Otome. In the process of looking for a buyer, A was reported by others because of his suspicious behavior. When the state agency staff went to the rescue, A's friend C gathered a crowd to obstruct the state agency staff's rescue operations. --C joined in the process of others abducting and trafficking women. The crime of abducting and trafficking in women was continued. A and C were found guilty of the crime of abducting and trafficking in women. C's behavior also violated the crime of obstructing official business.

(2) Statutory classification

1. State crimes and ordinary crimes. The crime of endangering national security in our country's criminal law is a state crime, and other crimes are ordinary crimes.

2. Natural person crimes and unit crimes.

3. Status offenders and non-status offenders. (1) Identity crime: It is a crime in which special identity is an objective component. It can be divided into identity that affects conviction (real identity) and identity that does not affect conviction but affects sentencing (unreal identity). --For crimes committed with a true identity, the crime of corruption and rape is committed; for crimes committed without a true identity, the crime of illegal detention. (2) Non-identity crime: a crime that does not use special identity as an objective component. Intentional homicide.

4. The crime of personal accusation and the crime of non-personal accusation. (1) Accusation of crime in person. The crime will only be dealt with by the judicial authorities if the victim complains. If the victim is unable to file a complaint due to force or intimidation, the People's Procuratorate and the victim's close relatives may also file a complaint.

The crime of personal prosecution is not the same as a private prosecution case. The scope of a private prosecution case is wider than the crime of personal prosecution. If the victim cannot complain, the crime of personal prosecution may also be turned into a public prosecution case. The reason why the criminal law stipulates the crime of personal prosecution is that this kind of crime is relatively minor; it often occurs among relatives, neighbors, and colleagues; this kind of crime involves the reputation of the victim, and arbitrary prosecution may damage the reputation of the victim. 1 Crime of insult (Article 246 of the Criminal Law, except for those that seriously endanger social order and national interests); 2 Crime of defamation (Article 246 of the Criminal Law, except for those that seriously endanger social order and national interests); 3 Crime of violent interference with freedom of marriage (Article 257 of the "Criminal Law", except for causing the death of the victim); 4. The crime of abuse (Article 260 of the "Criminal Law", except for the case where the victim is unable to complain or is unable to complain due to coercion or intimidation and causing serious injury or death to the victim); 5. Misappropriation Crime (Article 270 of the Criminal Code). (2) The crime of non-personal prosecution. The parties are not allowed to reconcile privately, and the state (procuratorial organ) should initiate public prosecutions.

5. Basic crimes, aggravated crimes and mitigated crimes. (1) Basic crime: a crime that does not have statutory aggravating or mitigating circumstances as stipulated in the sub-provisions of the criminal law. The simplest crimes specified in the Criminal Code. --General provisions of the crime of intentional homicide. (2) (Result) Aggravated offense. It refers to a crime form in which the perpetrator's intention or negligence due to the basic constituent elements causes aggravated consequences that exceed the basic constituent elements when performing the basic act, thus resulting in aggravated punishment. For example, if someone intentionally injures someone and causes death, the crime of intentional injury is aggravated. The sub-provisions of the criminal law stipulate aggravating circumstances and crimes with relatively serious statutory penalties based on basic crimes, which can be divided into aggravated crimes by result and crimes aggravated by other circumstances. The crime of aggravating the result and the crime of aggravating circumstances must be subject to the provisions of the criminal law, for example, the eight aggravating circumstances of intentional injury (causing serious injury or death) and robbery. (3) Mitigating crimes: The criminal law sub-provisions stipulate mitigating circumstances and crimes with lighter statutory sentences based on basic crimes. 1. The crime of intentional homicide and kidnapping stipulates that "if the circumstances are relatively minor," for example, Article 232 of the "Criminal Law" (Intentional Homicide) stipulates: "Whoever intentionally kills someone shall be sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or fixed-term imprisonment of more than ten years; If the offense is relatively serious, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years. "Among them, the first half of this article is the basic crime of intentional homicide, and the second half is the mitigated crime. 1. Paragraph 4 of Article 238 of the "Criminal Law" stipulates that if state agency staff take advantage of their powers to carry out illegal detention, they shall be severely punished. . The status of "state agency staff" is the status that affects sentencing. Whether he is a state agency staff member has no impact on the conviction.