Criminal insignificance: Problems of criminal procedural law enforcement

Despite the absence of a criminal procedure mechanism for the application of criminal insignificance, in law enforcement activities decisions are made to terminate criminal prosecution in connection with the insignificance of the act. In this regard, the issue of the procedure for applying Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in criminal proceedings is relevant, which is what this article is devoted to. After analyzing the history of the formation of criminal insignificance in Russia and summarizing the current practice of recognizing acts as insignificant, the author comes to the conclusion that the legislator made an essential mistake, expressed in recognizing an insignificant act as not a crime. Having identified three mandatory stages that make up the content of proceedings on minor acts, such as: 1) the stage of criminal legal qualification of the act; 2) the stage of establishing the grounds for criminal insignificance; and 3) the stage of applying the consequences of insignificance, the author consistently analyzes the state of criminal and criminal procedure legislation and offers his vision of existing problems, justifying the need for amendments and additions to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.