The subject of the crime is one of the four elements that constitute the crime. It is an integral part of the criminal composition. For a person to be found guilty, the offender must be the subject of that crime.

1. Concepts

The subject of the crime is an indispensable element of the criminal composition in the criminal law. The subject of the crime requires two signs. It is a sign of criminal capacity and an indication of the age of criminal responsibility.

2. Signs of the subject of a criminal offence

The subject of the crime must be a living person or an existing commercial legal entity that has not been dissolved. When the offenders are still alive or the commercial legal entity has not been dissolved, they can cause harm to society. And the law also does not allow another legal person or another person to take criminal responsibility on behalf of the offender. And a decisive sign for a subject to become a subject of a crime is that he or she must have criminal capacity and be of age for criminal responsibility.

According to the provisions of the Penal Code 2015 (amended and supplemented 2017), the subject of a crime can be an individual or a legal entity.

2.1. The subject of a crime is an individual

For the subject of the crime being an individual, who must be a person with criminal capacity and reach the legal age for criminal liability in some special cases, the subject must also have a number of additional signs. additional to determine that it is the subject of the crime).

Capable of criminal responsibility is a person who commits an act dangerous to the society, has the ability to perceive the danger to the society of his or her behavior and is able to control that behavior.

Having reached the age of criminal responsibility: according to the provisions of Article 12 of the 2015 penal code, amended and supplemented in 2017, it stipulates:

“Article 12. Age of criminal responsibility

1. Persons aged full 16 years or older must bear penal liability for all crimes, except those crimes otherwise provided for by this Code.

2. Persons between full 14 years old and under 16 years old must bear penal liability for very serious crimes, especially serious crimes specified in one of Articles 123, 134, 141, 142, 143, 144, 150 , 151, 168, 169, 170, 171, 173, 178, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 265, 266, 286, 287, 289, 290, 299, 303 and 304 of this Code”.

Therefore, according to the above provisions, people aged 16 or over must be responsible for all crimes, except for those crimes for which a specific age is specified in the law.

Persons from full 14 years old to under 16 years old shall only have to bear a number of crimes according to the provisions of the penal code.

For example: Accidentally causing death (Article 128 of the Penal Code), as long as a person reaches 16 years of age, he or she has to be criminally responsible for the above crime. As for the crime of Murder (123 of the Penal Code), this case belongs to one of the cases where a person aged full 14 to 16 years old must bear penal liability. So in this case, the person from full 14 years old has to be criminally responsible for the above crime.

– The special subject of the crime is that in addition to the mandatory signs of any person considered to be the subject of the crime, for the special subject of the crime there must be some additional signs to have may be considered a crime. For example, crimes related to positions (Articles 352 – Article 366 of the Penal Code) or crimes related to judicial activities (Articles 367 – Article 391), etc., these crimes must have an additional mark. to identify it as the subject of a crime. For example, the crime of abusing positions and powers while on official duty (Article 356 of the Penal Code amended and supplemented in 2017), in addition to the mandatory signs of a criminal subject, for this crime then, for this crime, the mandatory sign is that the person must be a person with a position. If the person has no position, it cannot constitute this crime. According to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 352, “A person with a position is a person who, by appointment, election, contract or other form of influence on salary or without salary, is assigned to perform a specific task. and have certain powers while performing their duties and tasks.

2.2. The subject of the crime is a commercial legal entity

A commercial juridical person is considered the subject of a crime when it has all the contents specified in Clause 1, Article 75, that is, the criminal act is committed in the name of the commercial juridical person, the criminal act is committed. for the benefit of a commercial juridical person, the criminal act is committed under the direction, management or approval of the commercial juridical person and the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution specified in Clauses 2 and 3 has not expired. Article 27 of this Code.

This is a new point in the provisions of the 2015 penal code. Before that, the 2003 Criminal Code only stipulates that the person responsible is an individual. As for the 2015 penal code, it has added a legal person as a subject to criminal responsibility.

Above is the advice of Khoa Tin on “The subject of crime”.

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