Alina Fisyn

This article, using the comparative legal method, studies the system of punishment based on the criminal codes of such countries as the Russian Federation and Germany. The author draws our attention to the following facts: the absence of punishment concept in the German criminal law, the specifics of a number of criminal legal institutions of the German law, extended list of punishments in the criminal code of the Russian Federation in comparison with the punishments under the criminal code of Germany, as well as the absence of the specialized punishments in the criminal code of Germany that can only be inflicted on special subjects of crime.

The concept of “crime category” is one of the fundamental and most frequently used in the theory of criminal law. This work is an attempt to study the development of the crime categories system in the history of Russian criminal legislation. There is a definition of the category as a whole, as well as the categorization of crimes in the article. The author studied the key artifacts of Russian law, starting from the most ancient period of Russian history and ending with the present day. In conclusion, the fact is highlighted that the division of criminal offenses according to their objects prevailed in criminal law norms over a fairly long period of time. The division of crimes into categories appeared not long ago, and the current system of categories of crimes fixed in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in 1996 may be recognized as one of the most successful experience of legislative division of crimes into categories in the history of domestic criminal law.