Failure to Report a Crime

(Russian, nedonesenie), in Soviet criminal law, a crime consisting in the failure to inform state agencies of a crime reliably known to be in preparation or to have been committed. Criminal responsibility for failure to report a crime is confined to cases specified by law. The 1958 law on criminal responsibility for crimes against the state prescribes punishment for failure to report treason, espionage, acts of terrorism, sabotage, wrecking, organized activity to commit especially dangerous crimes against the state, banditry, and the making and passing of counterfeit money.

The criminal codes of the Union republics also establish responsibility for failure to report such crimes as premeditated murder, rape under aggravating circumstances, robbery, and theft. The punishment depends on the type of crime that the guilty person failed to report; the maximum punishment is deprivation of freedom for a term of three years.