“Behavior” as a legal category in criminal and correctional legislation

This article examines “behavior” as a fundamental category of Russian correctional law that governs the imposition, execution, and remission of criminal penalties in both penitentiary and post-penitentiary contexts. The essence of crime, a form of illegal conduct exhibited by a legal subject that violates the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and warrants criminal prosecution, was analyzed. The intrinsic link between the legal category of “behavior” and key institutions of criminal law such as “crime” and “punishment” was considered. It was revealed that the grounds for legal coercion and incentives under criminal law are justified by “behavior”, which can be criminal (because criminality manifests itself through criminal conduct), unlawful, and lawful. The importance of the category of “behavior” for correctional practices stems from its consistency with their basic principles. The interdisciplinary nature of “behavior” and its incorporation into the conceptual framework of correctional law, which regulates the pre-penitentiary, penitentiary, and post-penitentiary stages of legal conduct, all taken into account by the law enforcer when deciding on the application of coercive and incentive-based legal measures, were demonstrated. The legal definitions of “post-criminal behavior,” “good behavior,” “exemplary behavior,” “antisocial behavior,” “penitentiary behavior,” and “post-penitentiary behavior” of convicted persons that determine the effectiveness of law enforcement were introduced.