Commentary to article 15. The age at which criminal liability begins in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan
1. A person who has reached the age of sixteen at the time of the commission of a crime is subject to criminal liability.
2. Persons who have reached the age of fourteen at the time of the commission of a crime are subject to criminal liability for murder (art. 96); intentional infliction of serious harm to health (art. 105); intentional infliction of moderate harm to health under aggravating circumstances (part 2 of art. 104); rape (art. 120); violent acts of a sexual nature (art. 121); kidnapping (Article 125); theft (Article 175); robbery (Article 178); robbery (Article 179); extortion (Article 181); unlawful seizure of a car or other vehicle without the purpose of theft under aggravating circumstances (parts 2, 3, 4 of art. 187); terrorism (art. 233); hostage-taking (art. 234); knowingly false reporting of an act of terrorism (art. 242); theft or extortion of weapons, ammunition, explosives and other devices (art. 255); hooliganism under aggravating circumstances (parts 2, 3 of art. 257); vandalism (art. 258); theft or extortion of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances (art. 260); desecration of the bodies of the deceased and their burial places under aggravating circumstances (Part 2 of Article 275); intentional deterioration of vehicles or communication routes (Article 299).
3. If a minor has reached the age provided for in parts one or two of this Article, but due to mental retardation unrelated to a mental disorder, could not fully realize the actual nature and social danger of his actions (inaction) or direct them during the commission of a crime of minor or moderate severity, he is not subject to criminal liability. responsibility.
According to part 1 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a person who has reached the age of sixteen at the time of the commission of a crime is subject to criminal liability.
The basis for determining the age at which a person can be brought to criminal responsibility is the level of consciousness of a minor, his ability to realize what is happening and act meaningfully in accordance with this. Therefore, minors who do not have this ability are not recognized as subjects of crimes. The ability to recognize the danger of one's behavior develops gradually, as a result of upbringing and life observations. The danger of certain actions becomes obvious to a teenager as his parents, caregivers, and other adults have been instilling in him since childhood: do not take someone else's stuff, do not shoot with a slingshot, do not throw stones, sticks, or other heavy objects at people, be careful with fire, and so on. Useful tips and suggestions help to realize at an early age the danger of criminal attacks on another person's life, health, property, and public order. By a certain age, a teenager already accumulates life experience, becomes aware of his actions and more or less correctly chooses his behavior options. Persons who have committed a crime between the ages of fourteen and sixteen are subject to criminal liability only for the crimes specified in Part 2 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. There is an opinion among some lawyers that criminal liability has been established by law since the age of 14 for the most serious crimes, which cannot be agreed on several grounds. Indeed, a significant part of the crimes listed in Part 2 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan are grave and especially grave. But this is not what the legislator took into account when formulating the criminal law norm. Firstly, if the severity of crimes played a priority role, then first of all, Part 2 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan would specify banditry (Article 237 of the Criminal Code), mass riots (Article 241 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan), crimes against the foundations of the constitutional order, but responsibility for these acts begins at the age of sixteen. Secondly, attention should be paid to the fact that some of the crimes are not serious at all: for example, extortion provided for in Part 1 of Article 181 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, vandalism provided for in Article 258 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan are crimes of moderate severity.
The explanation for this choice is that the law lists only those acts whose public danger can be fully realized by a person who has reached the age of 14. The danger and significance of these attacks is obvious and accessible, according to experts, to the teenager's understanding.
This is the only way to explain the non-inclusion in the list provided for in Part 2 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan of the main composition of hooliganism (part 1 of Article 257 of the Criminal Code). A teenager aged 14-15 years is not yet able to clearly distinguish mischief, prank, bravado from simple hooliganism. Swearing in a public place, violent acts in a fight, characteristic of simple hooliganism, are often a way for teenagers to express themselves, self-affirmation, posturing, typical of children in transition.
Establishing the general age of criminal responsibility from the age of 16 does not mean that it is from this age that responsibility begins for any crime not mentioned in Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. There are also crimes in the Code that, due to the special characteristics of the subject or the characteristics of the objective side, can only be committed by adults. Sometimes this is explicitly stated in the norm of the Special Part of the Criminal Code. For example, under Article 131 of the Criminal Code, only a person who has reached the age of 18 can be prosecuted for involving a minor in committing a crime.
Part 2 of Article 136 of the Criminal Code establishes the responsibility of adult able-bodied children for malicious evasion of payment by court order of funds for the maintenance of disabled parents.
The subjects of certain crimes (military, crimes against the interests of public service and public administration, etc.) can only be persons who have reached the age of 18.
When determining the age of a minor, the court must accurately determine the date, month and year of birth. At the same time, a teenager is considered to have reached the age prescribed by law when the exact date of birth is known - the day after birth. A person is considered to have reached a certain age not on his birthday, but starting from zero hours of the next day. Socially dangerous acts committed on the day of the 16th birthday (or 14th birthday) cannot be considered crimes and do not entail criminal liability.
Usually, the age is easily established on the basis of an appropriate document (passport, birth certificate, etc.). If there is no age document, other evidence is used, up to a forensic medical examination. If the experts name only the year of birth of the minor, then the birthday should be considered the last day of the named year, and when determining the age of the minimum and maximum number of years, the court should proceed from the minimum age of such a person proposed by the experts.
When considering juvenile cases, courts should clarify information about the identity of the accused, the conditions of his life and upbringing, the motives of the crime, the causes and conditions that contributed to the commission of the crime, the influence of elders on him and take them into account when deciding whether to impose punishment or apply educational measures.
A novel in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan is a provision according to which a minor between the ages of 14 and 18, if he commits a crime of minor or moderate severity, is not criminally liable if a forensic psychiatric examination reveals a lag in his mental development unrelated to a mental disorder, in connection with which he could not fully be aware of the actual nature and public danger of their actions (inaction) or lead them (Part 3 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan). A lag in the psychophysiological development of a minor does not mean that he is insane, since in this case there is no mental disorder. At the time of the commission of the crime, such a minor was not fully aware of the actual nature and social danger of his actions (inaction) or was not fully in charge of them due to the peculiarities of his mental development, expressed in social infantilism. At the same time, the legislator links the non-involvement of such a minor in criminal liability only with the commission of two categories of crimes: minor or moderate. The commission of a grave or especially grave crime by him entails criminal liability, but at the same time the peculiarities of mental development, which do not exclude sanity, are taken into account by the court when imposing punishment as mitigating circumstances.
Commentary from 2007 to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan from the Honored Worker of Kazakhstan, Doctor of Law, Professor, Academician of the Kazakhstan National Academy of Natural Sciences BORCHASHVILI I.Sh.
Date of amendment of the act: 08/02/2007 Date of adoption of the act: 08/02/2007 Place of acceptance: NO Authority that adopted the act: 180000000000 Region of operation: 100000000000 NPA registration number assigned by the regulatory body: 167 Status of the act: new Sphere of legal relations: 028000000000 Report form: COMM Legal force: 1900 Language of the Act: rus
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