Four-element system vs. two-class system

In the long process of criminal law, the debate on the elements of crime has never stopped. With the continuous breakthroughs in science and technology, more and more social problems are coming to the forefront: the emergence of gene-edited babies has brought about a series of social and ethical problems; the advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence and employment; the crime rate of minors continues to climb and is becoming increasingly underage ------, etc. These changes require the corresponding legal system to keep pace with. All these changes require the corresponding legal system to keep pace.

? Imagine this scenario: 11-year-old Xiaofang in the theft of the neighbor's sister Xiaoming's Apple phone called 21-year-old Xiaofei lookout. Xiaofei promised Xiaofang and pointed to do so. Xiaofang steals 100,000 and gives Xiaofei half of it.

? In the traditional four-element system, the crime consists of four aspects:

? 1 the object of the crime - that is, the social relations protected by our criminal law and violated by the criminal act

? 2 the objective aspects of crime - that is, criminal activity in the objective external manifestations, the main appearance of harmful behavior, harmful results, cause and effect relationship

? 3 the subject of the crime - to reach the legal age, with the ability to responsibility

? 4 Subjective aspects of the crime - intent, negligence and purpose

? In the two-class composition system:

1. (Objective) violation of the law class: objective elements of the subject of the act, the harmful act, the object of the act, the harmful results, causality - (objective) violation of the law to prevent the matter of justified self-defense, emergency evacuation, the victim's commitment

2. (Subjective) violation of the law class: the subjective elements of the crime of willfulness, criminal negligence, innocent Incident, factual knowledge error - (subjective) responsibility to prevent the matter of the age of responsibility, capacity for responsibility, the possibility of recognition of illegality, the possibility of anticipation

Back to the above scenario, according to the four elements of the system, the subject of the crime is to have the age of responsibility, the capacity for responsibility of the person. According to this Xiaofang is not guilty, Xiaofei is guilty, but to Xiaofei conviction will be hindered. First of all, Xiao Fei can not be convicted of theft as a principal or perpetrator. But if the little Fang convicted accessory or helper, it will be found: where is the main criminal or perpetrator? And then in accordance with the two-class system, the subject of the act is only to create the fact of legal infringement of a condition, and does not require the age of responsibility, the ability to responsibility.

So the elements of the crime is constantly debated, the current traditional four elements of the system has many disadvantages, the mainstream two-class system is more applicable.