Problems of Multiplicity of Crimes in the Criminal Legislations of the Russian Federation and the Azerbaijan Republic

Multiplicity of crimes is one of the most important and difficult problems of Criminal law. It represents an integral part of the general theory of crime, doctrines of punishment and corpus delicti, has a great practical significance for determining the grounds for responsibility and limits of imposing punishment for committing several crimes. The correct qualification of multiple crimes provides lawful and fair imposition of punishment. The necessity of studying the problem of multiple crimes also is defined by needs of the law-enforcement bodies and courts, because wide-ranging professionalization of criminal activities causes an inevitable increase of criminal cases, wherein the object of study in many cases is multiplicity of crimes. It shows the seriousness of this problem both in necessity for correct classification and imposition of punishment for offenses, and in terms of the determining reasons for multiple crimes. Multiplicity of crimes is a commitment of two or more crimes by a person, for neither of which he/she has been convicted, and none of which has circumstances excluding penal consequences. It has three forms: repetition of crimes, cumulative crimes, recidivism of crimes. These forms have different types, each of which is characterized by various degrees of social danger, and consequently, the responsibility for them should also be provided in different ways. In some cases, the deed has qualities aggravating punishment, which entail the application of a norm on a gravest crime, in others, deeds are covered by different norms entailing the stricter order for imposing punishment. Moreover, it is necessary to consider properties of multiple crimes in comparison with properties of the similar phenomena in other legal branches. In this knowledge, an important role belongs to sectoral distinctions in understanding of multiple offences, because they allow to determine regularities of the connection of separate elements of multiplicity with its legal consequences and rules for implementation of the sanction in case of combining several offenses in actions of one person. The author compared multiple crimes with properties of the similar phenomena in other legal branches using the example of the Russian Federation.