On the issue of criteria for criminal groups

In the article, from the standpoint of adequacy to the legal principle of consistency and certainty, as well as admissibility as differentiations, the criteria characterizing the group formations identified in the General Part of the Criminal Code are considered. The article analyzes the features proposed by the legislator and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which offers the relevant criteria in its resolutions. A special emphasis is placed on the criteria of a criminal organization. As a result of the consideration of the criteria of group formations, it is concluded that all the presented distinctive features of criminal groups are abstract, which increases uncertainty and the absence of the necessary feature that allows us to present a group formation as a unique sufficient basis. Attention is paid to the interesting conclusion of the Supreme Court about the possibility of complicity of a group of persons with one sane person.