The object of crime refers to the concreteness of the direct influence of criminal behavior.

The theory of crime constitution is the most important part in the field of basic theory of criminal law. In modern criminal law, the theory of crime constitution, as the cornerstone and soul of criminal law theory, is an extremely important theory and the center of the whole criminal law theory, and the object of crime is the most important component. Therefore, how to define the concept of crime constitution correctly and define it correctly determines the different status of the criminal object in the crime constitution. At present, Chinese and foreign criminal law scholars have different opinions on the definition and definition of criminal object, and their views are very different.

Second, the theoretical differences on the definition of criminal object.

(1) Theoretical differences on the concept of criminal object in civil law countries.

The object of crime is called the object of behavior in the criminal law theory of civil law countries. The connotation of the word "protected object" in the criminal law theory of civil law countries is roughly equivalent to the criminal object in the criminal law theory of our country, that is, the social relations protected by criminal law and infringed by criminal acts. Just as the research on the criminal object in China's criminal law theory must mention the criminal object, the research on the behavioral object in the criminal law theory of civil law countries is carried out with the in-depth study on the protected object. In the criminal law theory of continental law system, there are three elements in the theoretical system of crime establishment & conformity, illegality and responsibility. The object of crime exists as an element in the constitutive requirements, and the object in the constitutive requirements refers to the object of infringement, that is, the person or thing directly pointed by the behavior and infringed by the behavior. The criminal law theories of Germany, Japan and the former Soviet Union all have different understandings of the object of crime, such as whether the object of crime includes only material objects or intangible objects, whether any crime has a criminal object, and the position of the criminal object in the constitution of a crime.

(B) Definition of the concept of criminal object in China's criminal law

The definition of the scope of criminal object in China's criminal law is also controversial. The scope of the criminal object only includes people, things or others, what is the relationship between the criminal object and the criminal object, and so on.

(3) Definition of the concept of criminal object in China.

1. Theoretical differences on the concept of criminal object in domestic academic circles.

The traditional view of the concept of criminal object in China's criminal law theory holds that the criminal object is a specific person or thing that the criminal act stipulated in the specific provisions of criminal law directly acts on. Among them, people are the main body of social relations, and things are the material expression or undertaker of specific social relations. This view holds that the criminal object, as something closely related to the criminal object, belongs to the content of the elements of the criminal object.

In addition to the mainstream view, there are several main views in domestic academic circles, which are summarized as follows:

(1) The object of crime, also known as the object of action, is a specific person, thing or information that is infringed by or directly directed by the criminal subject's criminal behavior;

(2) The object of crime is the object of crime, which refers to a specific person or thing, and the object of crime should be closely related to the behavior and result;

(3) The object of a crime refers to a specific person or thing that criminals directly exert influence on in the process of committing a crime, and infringe an object through this influence;

(4) The object of crime is the function of criminal behavior, which can express the existing form of the object of crime and is a necessary condition for the objective existence of crime.

2. Problems existing in the main viewpoints of domestic academic circles.

First of all, the traditional mainstream view can not deal with the relationship between the object of crime and other elements of crime; Second, it does not conform to the spirit of judicial practice and needs to be improved.

Secondly, other domestic viewpoints also have their own merits: the first viewpoint, although expanding the scope of criminal objects, still fails to solve the problem of whether criminal objects exist objectively in all criminal acts, resulting in the fact that criminal objects are still not the legal status of constitutive elements; The second viewpoint confuses the criminal object and the criminal object, and cannot reflect the social relations infringed by criminal acts; The third view does not solve its existing problems, and it is consistent with the traditional view in defining the scope.

Third, the problems that should be paid attention to when defining the object of crime

(A) the relationship between the criminal object and the criminal object

The theoretical system of criminal law is an organic and coordinated whole, and related concepts are related. Further clarifying the relationship between the criminal object and other constitutive elements will help to understand the criminal object more deeply. Especially the relationship between criminal object and criminal object.

The object of crime and the object of crime must be consistent in the scope of existence. The traditional theoretical view holds that the object of crime exists in any constitutive elements of crime, while some crimes have no object of crime, which actually fails to clarify the relationship between the object of crime and the object of crime, leading to incorrect conclusions and many contradictions. For example, the traditional theory holds that the crime of escape, the crime of crossing the border and the crime of bigamy have no criminal objects, only criminal objects. This is equivalent to admitting that crimes that do not affect or affect something will exist. If some crimes have no criminal object, then the infringement of the objective elements of these crimes, that is, certain social relations or legitimate rights and interests, cannot be reflected by something. It is unfair that the traditional view puts the criminal object above the criminal object and puts the criminal object in a dispensable or even negligible position. In actual crime, criminal behavior infringes on a specific criminal object, and only by infringing on the criminal object can the criminal object be infringed. If there is no criminal object, there is no criminal object. Conversely, as an essential criminal object, it needs to be reflected by the change of the criminal object.

It can be seen that the criminal object and the criminal object belong to the same identity and cannot be separated, so they should be treated equally. The object of crime should be the unity of social relations and their undertakers; The criminal object is by no means something other than the criminal object, but the content of the criminal object itself. Without the object of crime, the object of crime cannot be discussed.

(2) Characteristics of the criminal object.

According to the relationship between criminal object and criminal object, the characteristics of criminal object should include:

(1) objective concreteness. As stated in the definition of criminal object, criminal object is an objective thing and belongs to the category of objective image. Once a criminal act is committed, it becomes an objective reality with legal significance and independent of human will. The effect of criminal behavior on the criminal object is recorded in the criminal object through the traces of behavior, changes in job ownership and other influences.

(2) protective. The object of crime is a social relationship protected by criminal law and infringed by criminal acts, and the object of crime is a specific person or thing directly affected by criminal acts. The relationship between them is that concrete people are the subjects or participants of concrete social relations, and concrete things are the material manifestations of social relations. The criminal behavior of criminals acts on the criminal object, that is, it infringes on social relations through the criminal object, that is, a specific person or thing.

(3) limitations. In every specific crime, the determination of the criminal object is restricted by the social relations that legislators want to protect. In a crime, there are often many targets of criminal behavior, but not all targets are criminal targets. Only things that reflect the social relations that legislators want to protect can become the object of this crime. For example, burglary, door locks and indoor property are damaged to varying degrees, and door and lock are not the objects of theft, because only property can reflect the ownership of property, and property is the object of crime.

(4) representativeness. The same criminal object does not necessarily reflect the same social relationship, but the same criminal object does not necessarily have the same crime type. For example, the same theft of wires and cables, if it is wires and cables in the warehouse, constitutes general theft. Stealing, cutting and selling the communication cable in use, if it changes the relationship between the cable and its communication system as a whole, constitutes a crime of endangering communication security. When defining specific criminal acts, we must see clearly the criminal object-the social relationship embodied by the criminal object. Of course, there are cases where even if the criminal object and the criminal object are the same, the charges may not be the same.

(3) Redefining the object of crime

According to the characteristics of the object of crime, we can draw the fourth point of view in domestic academic circles: "The object of crime is the function of criminal behavior, which can express the existing form of the object of crime and constitute the necessary objective existence of crime", which is the most appropriate expression of the object of crime. This view redefines the scope of crime by determining the objective existence of the criminal object, which not only conforms to the application status of the criminal object in the crime constitution, but also redefines the criminal object, which is different from other similar concepts. This is a great improvement on the traditional view, which is conducive to promoting the development of criminal law theory and judicial practice in China.

Therefore, the concept of criminal object should be defined as human beings (natural persons and legal persons), objects, national behavior norms and information. In this way, the relationship between the criminal object and the criminal phenomenon is handled well.