NON-MILITARY EMERGENCIES AS THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CRIMINAL OFFENSE

The concept of “emergency” is studied in the theoretical and legal aspects, the factors of an emergency are identified and its classification has been provided. At the same time, attention is focused on the fact that a state of emergency is associated exclusively with an emergency situation. The essential difference between these terms is that the time limits of a state of emergency and an emergency situation may not coincide. The state of emergency may continue even after the emergency has occurred or ceased. It is argued that any criminal offense committed in an emergency situation is characterized by a higher degree of public danger compared to identical criminal offenses committed under normal circumstances. The article analyzes the characteristics of the emergency situation in which state and local authorities, enterprises, institutions and organizations, the population, and the person who uses these destabilizing conditions to commit a socially dangerous act are located. It has been established that the less a person depended on the specific situation in which he or she acted, the less forced his or her act was, and therefore the greater the degree of his or her guilt and responsibility. Based on the example of extreme necessity, it has been found that if the situation excludes the possibility of choosing a variant of lawful behavior, it excludes criminal liability. The criminal legal significance of the circumstances of a criminal offense committed under extreme necessity, which may arise in an emergency situation, is manifested in two ways. First, it causes the emergence of a state of danger. Secondly, the criminal legal significance of the extreme necessity situation is related to one of the essential conditions for the legality of causing harm in this state, namely, the conditionality of the methods and means used to avert the danger, which are determined by these circumstances.