Memory of crime and its representation in criminal law

Abstract

Introduction. The law enforcement system reacts to crimes only as to events of the past, and in the criminal procedure law (Part 2 of Article 74 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation), the testimony of eyewitnesses (witnesses) and participants in a criminal conflict (suspect or accused, victim) is called the primary evidence in the case. Thus, the completeness and accuracy of the description of the criminal event by these persons depends to a significant extent on their memory. Parliamentary legislation should take into account public opinion and the will of the country's population, as the Constitution (Article 3) declares the people to be the bearers of sovereignty and the sole source of power, exercising it both directly and through state and local government bodies. The natural foundation of parliamentary legislation as an indirect form of popular rule is provided by mass legal education, which also involves the use of memory mechanisms, but not individual memory, but social memory. Consequently, the phenomenon of memory can and should be used to assess the quality of sectoral lawmaking, criminal prosecution, and crime prevention.Therefore, the purpose of this article is to compare the criminal liability of individuals for long-term and multi-stage crimes, as well as the retroactive force of criminal law, convictions, amnesties, and pardons used by the state, with individual and collective (social and historical) memory in order to improve the practice of combating crime.Theoretical foundations of the research is based on the works of ancient thinkers, as well as contemporary foreign and domestic philosophers, historians, sociologists, political scientists, philologists, and cultural experts who specialize in the study of memory, mnemonics (attention and memorization), and the forgetting of events, facts, and other information. The author has identified the institutions of criminal law that are most closely related to and rely on (or should be related to and rely on) the perceptions, expectations, and demands of the population, which are influenced by the information they receive about crime and the government's response to it. He took into account and critically evaluated both the relevant provisions of industry legislation and the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and a large group of scientists.Results. It has been established that the phenomenon of individual and collective (historical, social) memory has long been actively discussed and evaluated in many areas of the humanities, but primarily in the field of psychology. The article examines the different types of memory, the dependence of its volume and quality on the processes of memorization, forgetting, and archetyping. It also considers the similarities and differences between social memory and historical science. The article highlights and supports the prevailing scientific view that the identification function of a nation's historical memory is particularly important. The study showed that: the public and scientific attitude towards memory goes through alternating periods of increased attention and decline; the issue is currently relevant due to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory and the ongoing special military operation; information about tragic eras in the history of states is most firmly retained in people's memories; high-profile criminal events and crime in general generate the most interest compared to legal life in other areas of jurisprudence; memory issues are practically not studied in criminal law.Conclusions. At the end of the article, a conclusion is presented in the form of seven points, the main of which is the assertion that human memory is a vast storehouse of experience, a universal means of identification and unity of ethnic groups, and that it has the ability to elevate criminal law, including through the institutions of guilt, retroactivity of the law, criminal record, amnesty and pardon, and statute of limitations. Criminal law experts should develop and offer the state technologies for accounting for social memory in order to more fully reflect the field of crime prevention.