SOME KEY ISSUES OF THE CONCEPT OF A GROUP WITH A CRIMINAL SUBCULTURE (THIEVES' WORLD) AND THE CRIMINALISATION OF CREATION OF THE THIEVES' WORLD

Abstract

We believe that the legislator, by providing for Article 323 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, intended to intensify the criminal-legal fight against representatives of the leadership of the thieves' world. However, some of the approaches adopted by the legislator are problematic and do not contribute to increasing the effectiveness of the criminal-legal fight against the representatives of the leadership of the thieves' world.

In this context, the aim of the paper is, as a result of a systematic study and analysis of the concept of a group with a criminal subculture (thieves‘ world), and legal regulation providing for criminal liability for its creation, to clarify the concept of thieves’ world by proposing its edited version, and to determine the need to establish criminal liability for its creation.

As a result, we have come to the conclusion that a thieves’ world is an association of persons endowed with criminal hierarchy and interpersonal hierarchical relations, which operates according to the rules of conduct based on the thieves’ code and whose purpose is to commit a crime or solve disputes (problems) related to public or private affairs or to obtain an illegal benefit or other advantage through influence in the thieves' world or through violence, threats of violence, blackmail, coercion or other illegal actions. In addition, we concluded that there is no need to criminalise the creation of the thieves’ world.