Russian Journal of Economics and Law (Sep 2017)
CONTENT OF THE DEFINITION OF A “VICTIM”, ITS DERIVATIVESAND ADJACENT CATEGORIES IN THE LEGAL ACTS OF THE SOVIET STATEIN PRE-VICTIMOLOGY PERIOD (1917-1950): HISTORICAL-LEGAL VICTIMOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Abstract
Objective: to determine the content of the legal category of “victim”, the victimological terms derived from it and related categories used in the Soviet legislation and sub-normative legal acts of the first half of the 20th century. Methods: dialectical approach to cognition of social phenomena, allowing to analyze them in historical development and functioning in the context of the totality of objective and subjective factors that determined the choice of the following research methods: analysis, synthesis, comparison, systematic, formal-legal, comparative-legal methods.Results: the content of the legal category of “victim” has been researchhed, as wellas the related and derived legal definitions of the Soviet legislation, which can significantly broaden the boundaries of the modern subject of the Russian victimology. Based on the analysis of the Soviet legislation, the author proposed scientific classification of victims into separate types. The territorial boundaries of the study completely cover the USSR territory. The temporal boundaries of the study are defined as the period from 1917 to 1950. In some cases, for completeness of research, the author refers to the normative legal acts of other time periods and other countries. The empirical base of the study consisted of 168 existing and invalid regulatory legal acts of the RSFSR and the USSR, and political-legal documents of senior officials of the RSFSR and the USSR.Scientific novelty: for the first time in the Russian victimological science, the content of the basic category of “victim” was studied, which was used in normative legal acts of the Soviet state in the first half of the 20th century, i.e. before the formation of the domestic (Soviet) victimology. The author, for the first time in domestic victimology, offered to recognize as a victim not only physical and legal persons, social groups, and public formations, but also a social institution - a family.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific, educational, legislative and enforcement activities.
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