Criminal Law Mechanisms for Ensuring the Safety of the Older Adults

The paper analyzes the current state and features of the implementation of the mechanism for ensuring the safety of the older adults by the means of criminal law. The purpose of the study is to develop theoretical provisions aimed at improving the institution of criminal law protection of the rights of the older adults. The paper draws attention to the causes of the public danger of crimes against this social group, as well as the problems of legislative consolidation and practical implementation of this institution at the present stage. Methodologically, the study is based on the dialectical method of cognition, as well as a set of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction, abstraction), private scientific (statistical) and special legal (formal legal, method of interpretation of legal norms, historical and legal) methods. The author concludes that the level of public danger of crimes committed against the older adults cannot be determined unambiguously due to the individual characteristics of the victims. Qualifying a criminal act against an older adult person is considered fair in connection with the indication of the signs of «helpless» or «defenseless» state, which determines that there is no need to change the criminal law. Taking into account the ambiguity of judicial practice, the author defines criteria that contribute to the substantiation of the presented features in order to differentiate criminal liability for crimes against vulnerable elderly people.