The Content and Interpretation of the Philosophical Category “Measure” in Criminal Law
Lapshin V.F. The content and interpretation of the philosophical category “measure” in criminal law. Penitentiary Science, 2022, vol. 16, no. 4 (60), pp. 380–387. doi: 10.46741/26869764.2022.60.4.004.
Introduction: the article studies approaches to the definition of the essence of the philosophical term “measure” and features of its criminal interpretation in the categories of “punishment”, “liability”, “impact”, etc. Purpose: to identify the possibility of using criminal punishment (type of the measure and its quantity in the form of size/term) as a universal means of determining the scale of the public danger of each crime. Methods: dialectical, formal-logical, observation, analysis, synthesis, classification, system-structural. Results: the analysis of general philosophical and legal approaches to understanding the essence of measure shows that this category has many meanings: from an absolute digital value to a variable assessment made by a person depending on his/her development level and environment characteristics. Understanding the essence of measure as something exceptionally constant is a misconception. Conclusions: the concept “measure” in the criminal legal meaning represents, first of all, the limit of permissible behavior. In this context, all criminal law should be recognized as the measure, the prescriptions of which make it possible to distinguish between criminal and non-criminal forms of behavior. Punishment cannot be considered as a constant value by which the social danger of each crime is determined. The assessment of the social danger of crime varies significantly depending on social values, the types and meaning of which are subjectively determined (formed, changed, rejected) only by a person.
Keywords: measure; state coercion; punishment; liability; criminal legal impact; public danger of crime; justice; retribution.
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