PECUNIARY PENALTIES IN CRIMINAL LAW: GENERAL-THEORETICAL ASPECT

The current system of sanctions, including certain criminal penalties, as well as their subsystem in the form of property penalties is aimed at minimizing such negative phenomena in society as the annual quantitative and qualitative increase in the crime rate. However, the problem of sanctions, in general, and property sanctions in criminal law, in particular, is less studied compared to the problem of legal liability. The researchers discuss the types of criminal penalties, the correlation of the concepts of sanction and punishment, the existence of criminal law incentive sanctions, and the determination of special aspects of the pecuniary punishments. The issues of their classification and the relationship with the related legal categories, both at the general-theoretical and sectoral levels remain disputable. The paper analyzes the opinions of Russian scientists supporting the broad interpretation of the concept of punishment as a general-theoretical category equally acceptable to the representatives of various scientific schools. The authors emphasize that, although the criminal code contains the concept of punishment, this concept can not meet the need of the study of punishment as a system. The authors prove the necessity to define legal punishment at the institutional level as a complex inter-branch institute (legal responsibility sub-institute). The paper studies the relationship between such concepts as sanction and punishment. The authors conclude that the relationship between them depends on the levels at which the research takes place, and namely, the level of the system of sanctions and the punishment system; the formal level of certain sanctions and certain penalty; the level of defining sanctions and penalties as a legal consequence experienced by an offender. The authors study the pecuniary punishments in criminal law. The obtained data allow defining special aspects of criminal law pecuniary penalties.