The concept of a criminal offense
The sixth article of Criminal Law of the Republic of Latvia provides that "The criminal offense is recognized intentionally (on purpose) or negligence offense (action or inaction), that is provided in this Law and for making it threatens criminal penalties."
The offense is a particular person's behavior in the form of an unlawful act or omission. Human thoughts, views, beliefs, intent and disclosure of purpose, although it may be the state, society or individual unacceptable, are not punishable, if are not realized in life.
The criminal offense can only be considered an offense, which the most important feature is the harm or risk of harm, whether it would be harmful to the state, society as a whole or individual. Criminal offense is different from the other offenses with greater severity of harmfulness.
The above-mentioned action or inaction is harmful if it caused real damage to or could cause such to the state system, political or economic system, to the man, his rights and freedoms, to the environment, public policy, global security, etc.
However, in the same part 2 of Article 6 of Criminal Law provides that a criminal offense is not considered the offense (action or inaction), which has statutory constituent characteristics, but is made in circumstances which exclude criminal liability. These include self-defense, extreme necessity, etc. cases.
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