Averinskaya Svetlana Aleksandrovna Zagainov Vladimir Vladimirovich

The objective elements of the corpus delicti of embezzlement and misappropriation are examined with due consideration of established scholarly positions in criminal law doctrine and judicial practice. The study advances certain assumptions regarding the social relations that constitute the immediate object of the offense in question. It is emphasized that the principal legally relevant feature distinguishing embezzlement and misappropriation from other forms of theft lies not in the method of unlawful appropriation, but in the subject of the crime – “entrusted property”. Accordingly, it is argued that the object of criminal encroachment in cases of embezzlement and misappropriation should not be defined in terms of the generalized notion of “property relations”, but rather as the specific proprietary relations of possession, use, or disposal of property that had been entrusted to the offender for the purpose of performing lawful civil-law actions. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that these relations arising between the owner and the offender constitute the initial and fundamental element in the mechanism whereby the offender subsequently realizes his or her mercenary intent and causes pecuniary damage through the misappropriation of entrusted property. The establishment of such relations, therefore, represents the most significant stage in the algorithm for the legal qualification of embezzlement and misappropriation. It is concluded that the precise determination of both the immediate object and the subject matter of the crime enables a more effective and well-grounded distinction between embezzlement and misappropriation, on the one hand, and other offenses against property, on the other. The necessity of legally consolidating the defining features of the subject matter of the crime in question is affirmed. In light of the analysis and synthesis of diverse scholarly perspectives, the paper substantiates the proposal to introduce into legislation a legal definition of the concept of «entrusted property».

crimes against property, embezzlement and misappropriation, proprietary relations, subject matter of the crime, entrusted property, legal qualification

Averinskaya Svetlana Aleksandrovna – Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Law, Law Institute, Irkutsk State University (1, K. Marx st., Irkutsk, 664003, Russian Federation), RSCI Author ID: 548288, ORCID: 0000-0001-6390-3598, Researcer ID: ABA-1600-2021, e-mail: aver27@mail.ru

Zagainov Vladimir Vladimirovich – Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Irkutsk Institute (branch) All-Russian State University of Justice (RPA of the Ministry of Justice of Russia) (4, Nekrasov st., Irkutsk, 664011, Russian Federation), RSCI Author ID: 499781, ORCID: 0000-0003-2020-4097, е-mail: vladzagain@mail.ru

Averinskaya S. A., Zagaynov V. V. Diskussionnye voprosy kvalifikacii prisvoeniya i rastraty cherez prizmu ob"ekta prestupnogo posyagatel'stva [Discussion issues of qualifying embezzlement and misappropriation through the lens of the object of criminal encroachment] Sibirskij yuridicheskij vestnik [Siberian Law Herald]. 2025, no 3(110), pp. 64–68. – DOI 10.26516/2071-8136.2025.3.64 (in Russian)

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