Defining the spheres of criminal offences and violations in the area of road traffic offences

Abstract

Theoretical and practical defining of spheres of criminal offences and violations belongs to outstanding issues of criminal law and law of torts. Various notions in criminal legal and violation-related legal theory regarding this problem occur as so-called qualitative and quantitative differentiation of criminal offences and violations. According to the notion of qualitative difference between criminal offences and violations there is an essential difference between two kinds of punishable acts that can be noted by comparing general elements of the notion of criminal act with the elements of general notion of violation. For instance, the main element in the notion of criminal offence is an act committed by a physical person. On the other hand, violation is an act that can be committed by both physical and legal person. Furthermore, criminal offence is an act that must be prescribed by the law before it has been committed. However, violations in our legislation are prescribed by the law, by various regulations and decisions of the assemblies of autonomous regions, municipalities, the city of Belgrade and town assemblies. Finally, as distinguished from criminal offence, culpability is not an element of the general notion of a violation. Namely, violation-related law demands culpability as a condition of penal system, but only if the violation has been committed by a physical person (or responsible person or entrepreneur). Legal persons as perpetrators of violations cannot have conscience and will, in other words they cannot have a psychological relation towards an act - culpability. The complexity of the problem of defining the sphere of criminal offences from the sphere of violations in practice is shown by comparison of legal description of criminal offence of jeopardizing public traffic (acts, consequences, places of commitment, violation subject) with the characteristics of corpus delicti of relevant violations against the traffic safety. The analysis of traffic delinquency shows that there can be some overlapping of characteristics of corpus delicti of criminal offences and violations, which made the legislator prescribe the objective condition of incrimination as a condition for the existence of criminal offence of jeopardizing public traffic (Art. 195 of Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia), in other words light bodily injury or property damage exceeding the value of 120.000 dinars.

Rad se bavi razgraničenjem krivičnih dela od prekršaja, i to sa aspekta poređenja opštih elemenata u pojmu krivičnog dela sa elementima u opštem pojmu prekršaja. Sa druge strane, na primeru saobraćajne delinkvencije ukazuje se na složenost odnosa između saobraćajnih krivičnih dela i saobraćajnih prekršaja, njihovu međusobnu isprepletanost, sličnost u pogledu obeležja bića krivičnih dela i prekršaja u javnom saobraćaju, ali i način za njihovo pouzdano razgraničenje.