Criminally prosecuted person: concept, types, legal status

Introduction. The study of the activity of exposing a person in a committed crime determines its content of the relationship between the process of proving the commission of a crime by a specific person and his legal status. In this regard, it is important to refer to the scientific provisions of the theory of evidence and criminology regarding the periodization of the crime investigation process.

Purpose. To consider the content of criminal prosecution as an activity aimed at exposing a person in the commission of a crime, as well as to substantiate the relevance of highlighting the stages of criminal prosecution in relation to the legal status of the prosecuted person at each stage.

Methods. The methodological basis of the research consists of the formal legal method, the comparative legal method, a systematic approach to the study of judicial practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, structural, functional and activity-based approaches.

Results. As a result of the conducted research, three key stages of criminal prosecution have been identified.: 1) the stage of identifying the person who committed the crime; 2) the stage of exposing the suspect; 3) the stage of exposing the accused. The author's definitions are formulated for each stage, reflecting the specifics of procedural activity at various stages of criminal proceedings and allowing to differentiate the legal status of a person being prosecuted. The legal status of the persecuted person has been determined at the initial stage in the meaning of "suspected person". The introduction of a new concept of "criminally prosecuted person" is proposed, the definition and composition of subjects are formulated. The consideration of criminal prosecution in a broad sense, carried out through criminal procedural and operational investigative activities, is justified. The concepts of "criminal procedural prosecution" and "operationalinvestigative prosecution" have been introduced.

Conclusions. The proposed approach to the content of criminal prosecution can serve as a theoretical and legal basis for optimizing the mechanism for ensuring guarantees of individual rights at all its stages. Considering criminal prosecution in a broad sense allows us to make the results of various studies of the rights of criminally prosecuted persons more generalizable and applicable.

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