THE CRIME CONCEPT IN THE CRIMINAL LAW OF THE RUSSIAN FEDER ATION IN TERMS OF FORMAL AND MATERIAL DEFINITION OF THE CRIME

The formal definition of the crime in the Czarist Russia and its extension the “nulla poena sine lege” principle was discarded initially in the Soviet Russia period and material definition of the crime was accepted. But, in 1958 year, the “nulla poena sine lege” principle was accepted again and formal-material definition of the crime included in the prepared new Criminal Code of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dated 1960. The formal-material definition of the crime is also available at the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in force today. In this study; the crime concept available at the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; the historical development of the crime concept in the Russian Law from Czarist Russia to present and properties and structural elements of the crime available at the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are studied. In the conclusion part of the study, a suggestion was made for adding of a principle which predicted the punishment of the actions that has no social risks due to have less importance and a similar arrangement in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to the Turkish Criminal Code