Crimes Against the Person

in Soviet criminal law, socially dangerous acts or omissions that offend against the life, health, freedom, or dignity of the individual. Crimes against the person are grouped in a separate chapter in the criminal codes of the Union republics, for example, Chapter 3 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.

Crimes against the person are subdivided according to the immediate object of the offense into (1) crimes against life, either homicide or deliberately driving someone to suicide; (2) crimes against health, including bodily injury and infecting with venereal disease; (3) crimes that create a danger to life and health, such as illegal abortion, rape, the malicious evasion of payments of alimony or child support, the malicious evasion of the duty to assist parents, the abuse of guardian duties, deserting a person in mortal danger, failure to render assistance to a sick person, and failure by a ship captain to assist the victims of a disaster; (4) crimes against the personal freedom of citizens, including stealing or exchanging a baby and illegally depriving a person of freedom (illegal obstruction of free choice of residence, illegal detention); (5) sex crimes; and (6) crimes against the honor and dignity of the person, such as slander or insult.