Inchoate Offences in the Criminal Law of Ukraine

Abstract

The  person  who  commits  a forbidden  act  is  not  always  capable  of  finishing  it.  The  act  can  be  stopped  both  by  some  objective  circumstances  and  by  the  decision  of  the  offence  subject.  Art.  13  of  the  Criminal  Code  of  Ukraine  distinguishes  three  stages  of  perpetration  of  an  offence:  1)  preparation  of  offence;  2)  attempt  to  commit  an  offence;  3)  commission  of  an offence.                                               All  these  stages  differ  as  far  as  the  character  of  the  act  and  the  degree  of  fulfilling  the  perpetrator’s
 intent  are  concerned.  The  first  two  stages  are  types  of  inchoate  offences.  All  the  three  stages  need  not  be  present  in  the  perpetration  of  a given  offence.  An  offence  can  be  committed  without  the  presence  of  the  stages  of  preparation  and/or  attempt.                                             When  the  Criminal  Code  of  Ukraine  was  accepted  in  2001  the  institution  of  the  stages  of  an  offence  was  significantly  modified:  1)  for  the  first  time  the  definition  of  a committed  offence  was  introduced;  2)  for  the  first  time  preparation  of  an  offence  and  attempt  to  commit  an  offence  were  defined
 as  types  of  not  fully  committed  offence;  3)  the  law  described  the  types  of  attempts  to  commit  an  offence;  4)  the  list  of  types  of  perpetration  of  an  offence  was  extended;  5)  special  rules  of  punishment  for  inchoate  offences  were  introduced.                                                   The  special  features  of  inchoate  offences  are  constituted  by  the  fact  that  there  is  no  fulfilment  of  those  elements  of  an  offence  which  art  described  in  the  Special  Part  of  the  Criminal  Code  of  Ukraine:  there  is  no  full  execution  of  the  objective  side  or  the  lack  of  socially  dangerous  consequences;  seen  from  the  subjective  side  preparation  and  attempt  are  characterised  by  the  direct  intent  only.n  offence.