THE OBJECTIVE SIDE OF MINORS’ CORRUPTION: ANALYSIS OF THEORETICAL PROVISIONS AND CRIMINAL LAW PRINCIPLES OF ESTABLISHING

Abstract

The article under consideration deals with the leading theoretical provisions and crim-inal law principles of establishing the objective side of the criminal offense under Art. 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Corruption of minors”). The sign, which is obligatory for the objective side of the corruption of minors, namely a socially dangerous act, which is legally defined as lewd acts, is clarified. The author reveals the content of the signs of an act that should be not only socially dangerous but also an illegal, specific, volitional and conscious act of a person. These features are extrapolated to lewd acts, which are accompanied by an illustration of the relevant properties of the act examples. It is established that the criminal offense under Part 1 of Art. 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine has a formal composition and therefore is considered completed from the moment of committing lewd acts. The author draws special attention to the importance of the objective side of the corpus delicti in general and the corruption of minors in particular, including the possibility of using its features to distinguish between different corpus delicti and establish other elements of the corpus delicti. The situation is considered in which corruption of minors can be committed as a con-tinuing act, forming a single crime, which is qualified under the relevant part of Art. 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, excluding repetition. The author proves that corruption of minors in the presence of appropriate conditions can be recognized as a minor act under Part 2 of Article 11 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. An example of such a situation is considered. It is stated that the legislator used the evaluative concept of debauchery to describe a socially dangerous act in Article 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. However, today, taking into account the amendments introduced to Section IV of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on criminal offenses against sexual freedom and sexual inviolability, this approach needs to be adjusted. The content of lewd acts has significantly narrowed and can be normatively disclosed without the use of evaluative concepts.