Liability and Guilt: A Linguistic, Psychological and Socio-Legal
Analysis
Hussein Idrisov
1
a
and Selima Akhmedova
2
b
1
Kadyrov Chechen State University, Grozny, Russian Federation
2
Chechen State Pedagogical University, Grozny, Russian Federation
Keywords: Freedom of Choice, Guilt, Guilt Feeling, Liability, Theories of Deviance, Crime.
Abstract: The article provides an analysis of the categories of guilt and liability, taking into account the approaches
formed in linguistics, sociology, psychology and jurisprudence. It is noted that the concepts of guilt and
liability, as phenomena filled with a specific historical character, are poly-scientific categories and are the
subject of research in many sciences: psychology, jurisprudence, history of philosophy, sociology. The article
examines the main theories of deviance: the economic theory of deviance, the theory of heterogeneity and
variability of the normative value system of society, the theory of social destabilization and the theory of
stigmatization. In addition, within the framework of the studied phenomena from a legal point of view,
statistical data on the crime rate in the Russian Federation for different periods are provided.
1 INTRODUCTION
Categories of guilt and liability are, first of all,
psychological concepts, but at the same time they are
not in the least degree of historical-legal and socio-
legal nature, and maybe even to a greater extent. At
different eras of the genesis of society and the state,
the understanding of liability and one of its elements
– guilt – was ambiguous and sometimes even
contradictory. At the dawn of human society, attitude
to responsibility, its understanding and
implementation were reduced to the elementary
primitive level according to the principle of talion -
an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, when in most
cases the punishment for an act was death of the one
who caused harm, regardless of whether he was guilty
or not for the act which caused damage.
Subsequently, as society and state institutions
developed, the genesis of responsibility in the
historical perspective was embodied in the modern
stage in the formulation of responsibility from the
perspective of the principle of guilt.
Guilt and liability as polyscientific categories
imply their study from the positions of different
sciences, such as: psychology, jurisprudence, history
of philosophy, sociology, etc. After all, ultimately, a
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7008-8904
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3807-602Х
person as a "carrier" of guilt is a mental being, in
terms of his essential mental activity, and a social
being, in terms of the need for interpersonal
interaction between people in society. It is impossible
not to take into account such moments in the legal
analysis of the studied categories.
An important element in the process of
personality formation is the legal consciousness.
Legal consciousness as an element of personality
structure, formed, among other things, through
psychological and pedagogical education is an
important component in the implementation of the
individual’s behavior. Lack of legal consciousness or
its insufficient degree is associated with the risk of
implementation of the behavior by the subject that is
considered unethical, anti-social, and, ultimately,
unlawful. Unlawful behavior presupposes as its
natural result the reaction to this state of affairs on the
part of society and the state. In other words, unlawful
behavior is characterized through such legal
categories as guilt and liability of the individual.
Guilt is not liability and liability is not only guilt,
although these are interrelated scientific categories,
they are not identical.
How does one understand guilt, how does one
define it? What emotions and feelings are associated
Idrisov, H. and Akhmedova, S.
Liability and Guilt: A Linguistic, Psychological and Socio-Legal Analysis.
DOI: 10.5220/0011600500003577
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Actual Issues of Linguistics, Linguodidactics and Intercultural Communication (TLLIC 2022), pages 5-9
ISBN: 978-989-758-655-2
Copyright
c
2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
5
with the undergoing of guilt by an individual? As a
rule, guilt is characterized as a reaction to the result
of deviant behavior. It is natural that the researcher-
lawyer is interested in guilt as a legal category.
However, it should be noted that a general judgment
about guilt can be formed only with a comprehensive
analysis of this category from the perspective of not
only legal science, but also the sciences we have
outlined above.
2 RESEARCH METHODS
In the process of the study of these phenomena, first
of all, let's turn to the etymological analysis of the
concept of guilt. In the explanatory dictionary of the
Russian linguist V. Dal guilt is defined as follows:
"Guilt – a fault, misdemeanor, transgression, as well
as any unauthorized, reprehensible act" (Dal, 1955).
As can be seen, guilt is assessed by V. Dal from an
objective position. That is, guilt acts as a result of an
impermissible behavior, action. This is also
evidenced by the attribution of guilt to a
"reprehensible deed". In other words, a person is
condemned by another person, the authorities, society
as a whole.
Another Russian linguist S.I. Ozhegov in the
Dictionary of the Russian Language defines guilt
almost in the same way, namely as "a transgression, a
crime; the cause, the source of something
(unfavorable)" (Ozhegov, 1986). It is easy to see that
here we are talking about an unlawful action. Thus,
the scope of the concept of "guilt" is almost
completely identified with the concepts of
"misdemeanor and crime". This means that the
presence of guilt indicates the presence of an
unlawful action (misdemeanor or crime) and vice
versa.
Also, V. Dal's Dictionary states that guilt is a duty,
an obligation, a debt. "Sometimes a pecuniary
penalty, blame, penalty is called a fault <...>" (Dal,
1955). That is, if a person was at someone's
command, was obliged, and also had a debt, it was
said about him that he was guilty.
We proceed from the fact that the psychological
interpretation of guilt and responsibility implies their
characterization from the position of such
psychological state of a person, its internal discomfort
state, arising in situations when a person undergoes
guilt, due to the negative assessment of his actions,
due to his violation of the established imperatives.
Such a state acts as a regulator of relations on an
internal and interpersonal level. At the same time, as
O. Vasilyeva and E. Korotkova state "guilt, designed
to play in the life of society the role of a social
regulator contributing to its integration, in practice
has acquired disjunctive functions". They explain this
phenomenon by the fact that "unconscious, irrational
forms of guilt prevail in the psychical reality, making
communication difficult and reducing a person's
ability to social adaptation" (Vasilyeva, Korotkova,
2004).
In terms of law, guilt is a personal attitude
(mental, volitional, etc.) of the offender to the results
of his action (inaction), which has legal
consequences, and liability is the obligation of an
individual established by the state to suffer personal
and (or) property deprivations, depending on the
degree of public danger of the offense.
In the analysis of liability and guilt such
categories as will, volition and interest are no less
important, because in guilt there is an active volitional
moment, which explains clearly the fact that an action
(wrongful) generates guilt, and action, in turn, is
impossible without the active will and volition of an
individual. It seems to us that the will, volition and
interest are not simply interconnected, but more, they
are interdependent and correlate with the categories
of guilt and liability. In addition, the will, being,
above all, a psychological category, nevertheless has
a certain legal meaning. The concepts of "will" and
"interest" are used by the legislator in the wording of
a number of articles of codified normative legal acts
of Russia (Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
of 06/13/1996 N 63-FZ; Code of the Russian
Federation on Administrative Offenses of December
30, 2001 N 195-FZ (as amended on January 28,
2022); Civil Code of the Russian Federation (parts
one, two, three, four)). We proceed from the fact that
the will of an individual in the legal understanding is
an internal mental process, the need, realized by a
subject, based on a free choice, to achieve (solve) a
specific set goal, potentially implying legal
consequences for the subject himself. From the point
of view of legal science, not only the will as a measure
of a person's legal status is important, but perhaps
even primarily the expression of will as an act of
expressing a person's will outside. Thus, expression
of will are those actions that demonstrate the will of
the subject outside, so to speak, outside his
consciousness - in the material world, and these
actions have an actual legally significant nature. The
category of interest from the legal point of view is the
final desired result (goal) of the process of
implementation of the subject's will through his
expression of will, which has legal consequences for
the subject himself.
TLLIC 2022 - I INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "ACTUAL ISSUES OF LINGUISTICS, LINGUODIDACTICS AND
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION"
6
In the Russian system of law, legal responsibility is
divided into the following types:
1) criminal;
2) administrative;
3) disciplinary;
4) civil-legal.
Each type of liability is regulated by the relevant
body of law – code (Criminal Code of the Russian
Federation of 06/13/1996 N 63-FZ; Code of the
Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses of
December 30, 2001 N 195-FZ (as amended on
January 28, 2022); Civil Code of the Russian
Federation (parts one, two, three, four); Labor Code
of the Russian Federation of December 30, 2001 N
197-FZ).
Category of legal responsibility is mediated by the
categories of offense, one of the elements of which is
also guilt. In turn, given the complex nature of the
concept of offense, it is formulated by some scientists
as a complex phenomenon, which includes a number
of factors: economic, psychological, legal,
informational, social and biological (Malein, 1985).
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Understanding the guilt of individual subjects of
constitutional and legal responsibility should proceed
from its unified interpretation in all branches of law
and is defined by the author as the mental attitude of
a person to the deed. At the same time, analyzes its
categories such as essence, content, form, volume and
degree.
D.S. Rymarev also considers the features of
determining the guilt of collective subjects of
constitutional legal responsibility for electoral
delicts (Rymarev, 2017).
In the framework of this study, the author tends to
determine the guilt of election commissions and
election associations based on an objective legal
concept. At the same time, he especially emphasizes
that such categories as intent, negligence, are
unsuitable for establishing their guilt, since there is no
need to talk about any mental attitude of the collective
subject to the electoral delict, since electoral
associations and electoral commissions represent a
certain organized associations of citizens with a
special legal personality, the latter of which are
endowed with certain state or other public powers
(Rymarev, 2017). “If an individual is able to make a
choice, he bears responsibility for it” (Dubinin,
Karpets, Kudryavtsev, 1989). Guilt is manifested in
such situations, when an individual had an
opportunity to choose among several variants of
behavior, but, nevertheless, an illegal variant was
chosen, that, naturally, presupposes liability of the
offender.
In this regard, an objective approach dominates in
the legal literature, when guilt, regardless of the
nature of the subject of responsibility, is a failure by
a person to take all measures that depend on him to
fulfill constitutional duties. This understanding of
guilt does not take into account the differences
between individual and collective subjects and in
many respects approaches the concept of "illegality".
In addition, it should be pointed out that a person's
choice of lawful, or conversely, unlawful options for
behavior is assumed to be a priori completely
conscious and voluntary.
Basic Theories of Personality Deviancy
As part of the application by the courts of the norms
of the electoral legislation governing the grounds for
canceling the registration of a candidate (list of
candidates), as a rule, the guilt of a person in
committing an electoral delict is considered
established if there is involvement of the person in the
relevant unlawful act, while the form of guilt
(intention and negligence) , with rare exceptions, is
not investigated. But establishing the involvement of
a person and his guilt are not the same thing. One
should agree with the opinion expressed in the
literature that guilt is the mental attitude of the
offender to the unlawful act and its consequences, and
involvement is participation in the commission of the
offense. Therefore, the person involved may not
always be guilty. At the same time, it is necessary to
make a reservation that in relation to collective
subjects (electoral associations) the concept of guilt is
different (Rymarev, 2017). Undoubtedly, at any time,
any society consists of different strata, social
categories. There are, roughly speaking, three main
strata: the poor, the middle class, and the rich. When
the proportion of poor people prevails in society, it is
typical to talk about systemic problems (starting with
economic and ending with spiritual and moral) in the
state. The presence of middle class in the structure of
population at the level of about 30% (this data varies
upward or downward) is an indicator of normal
development of both society and state. The presence
of middle class in the structure of society is important
from the point of view that those resources (first of
all, financial), which the middle class has at its
disposal provide "decent" quality of life, in
connection with what, this stratum of society is more
social, financial and economic resistant to various
kinds of shocks, including economic crises, occurring
in the modern world. In contrast, the minimal or
almost complete absence of the middle class in
Liability and Guilt: A Linguistic, Psychological and Socio-Legal Analysis
7
society is a factor of high social tension between the
other two classes - the poor and the rich (Shipunova,
2004).
The existing amorphous definition of guilt
requires a radical revision. In the construction of the
concept of guilt, instead of the terms “consciousness”,
“understanding”, one should include the concept of
“personal involvement in the illegal essence of the
act” - the relation of the entire personal sphere
(consciousness and subconsciousness) to the
committed act (Rymarev, 2017). The forms of guilt
must be correlated with the structure of the unlawful
act. The intentional form of guilt is guilt characterized
by the criminal purpose, methods and result of the
unlawful act. A careless form of guilt is a guilt
characterized by a criminal method and the result of
an unlawful act.
The following definition of guilt can be
recognized as legally and psychologically correct:
guilt is the personal involvement of a capable person
in a socially harmful, unlawful act committed by him
and its consequences (Rymarev, 2017).
The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
provides for exemption from criminal liability in
connection with the active repentance of the accused
(Article 75). However, the law does not clearly
regulate the concept of “active repentance”, only its
general features are indicated: surrender, contributing
to the disclosure of a crime, compensation for damage
caused.
As practice shows, in the majority of cases under
investigation, when applying Art. 75 of the Criminal
Code of the Russian Federation, facilitating the
disclosure of a crime by the accused (suspected) is
reduced mainly to giving truthful testimony. In
criminal cases, as a rule, there is no information on
proving the authenticity of active repentance, the
reasons and motives for active repentance are not
clarified; the accused (suspect) is not asked to admit
his guilt. Meanwhile, without clarification of all these
circumstances, the implementation of this article is
impossible. From a psychological point of view,
active repentance is impossible without an admission
of guilt by a person. Recognition of guilt means the
mental attitude of a person to what he has done,
awareness of the wrongfulness of what he has
committed.
Chechen society, which throughout its history has
undergone various cataclysms and negative
conditions, is a vivid example of the State's
application of measures of collective responsibility.
From the Caucasian War (from the 1830s to the
second half of the 19th century) up to the tragic events
of the 1990s (the first and second Chechen wars),
Chechen society (nation, people) was constantly
(except for those few periods when there were no
wars, famine and devastation) on the brink of
survival, sometimes facing the question of its further
physical existence as an ethnos. Of course, in such a
state of affairs it was common for individuals to take
the path of deviant behavior, and it is still a big
question how they were guided in doing so. But these
isolated incidents should not be a reason for the
collective responsibility of an entire people. Chechen
history is replete with cases of such responsibility: the
burning of entire villages (from Chechen equivalent
"evl") during the Caucasian War, the so-called "mass
dispossession" and exile in Siberia during the
Stalinist repression, and the deportation of Chechens
and Ingush to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan during the
Second World War, when some 50,000 Vainakhs
were serving their country at the frontlines of this
war. This unjust attitude of the authorities during that
period also contributed to the deviant behavior of
certain members of the population.
The Chechen nation has literally "passed through"
the theory of stigmatization in recent times because
of the tragic events of the 1990s (the first and second
Chechen wars). The new generation of people who
have grown up on the ruins of a ruined but unbroken
nation continues to reap the fruits of this "label"
attitude towards an entire nation. For example, if we
take statistical data on the level of crime in one of the
regions of Russia - the North Caucasian Federal
District, in particular, in Stavropol Krai, as the
administrative center of this federal region, they did
not contradict the indicators of the dynamics of crime
mentioned above in the whole of Russia. So, if we
turn to statistics figures, "in 1993 in Stavropol Krai
36 623 crimes were registered, in 1999 - 48 214, i.e.
the growth in percentage ratio to the crime level of
1993 was 131.6%; if in 1994 the number of crimes
per 10 thousand population was 131.4, in 1999 -
179.7" (Vanichkin, 2004).
Beginning in 2014 and continuing through 2018,
there has been a downward trend in the crime rate in
Russia. Thus, according to data from the official
website of the Unified Interagency Information and
Statistical System (EMISS) in Russia in 2014 for
every 100 thousand people the crime rate was 1500,
2, and as of 2018 this figure was 1355, 8 (a decrease
of 9.6%). If we take the statistics for the region of the
North Caucasus Federal District, we get the following
data: in 2014, the crime rate was 726.7 for every 100
thousand people, and for the period of 2018 this
indicator was already 712.4, that is, we record a
relatively small decrease in the crime rate in the
territory of the North Caucasus Federal District by
TLLIC 2022 - I INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "ACTUAL ISSUES OF LINGUISTICS, LINGUODIDACTICS AND
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION"
8
1.9%. And finally, if we turn to the data on the
administrative and geographical center of the North
Caucasian Federal District – Stavropol Region, they
look as follows: if in 2014 the crime rate per 100
thousand people was 1197.9, then in 2018 this
indicator was 1153.4, that is, we record a decrease by
3.7 % (Official statistics on the crime rate in the
Russian Federation).
These statistics show that the crime rate changes
in a wave-like manner depending on the domestic and
foreign situation: in the years of various cataclysms
(financial crisis, political crisis, local conflicts, etc.)
the crime rate tends to rise and, vice versa, in the years
of "calm" the number of crimes registered annually
also decreases (note: in these statistical calculations
the so-called "latent crime" is not taken into account,
because there are no reliable data on the number of
crimes registered in Russia). Taking into account the
difficult economic situation (both in the domestic and
foreign arena), the still ongoing global crisis
(including the crisis of the Russian economy under
the pressure of international sanctions), taking into
account the ongoing pandemic coronavirus, we can
predict that the crime rate in Russia, at least in the
near future, will tend to grow back.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The analysis of the categories of responsibility and
guilt allows us to draw a number of conclusions of the
following nature. In a situation where there is a fact
of illegal behavior (act, deed), it is typical to talk
about the implementation of liability measures. In
other words, the reason for the implementation of
measures of legal responsibility is the behavior of the
subject, which is deviant, despite the fact that he had
an alternative, a choice of behavior. Any choice
presupposes further action, that is, active volitional
actions of the subject aimed at achieving the goal
(interest). Volitional actions are mediated by the
internal attitudes of the individual, his life principles,
interests, desires and necessity. Thus, the prerequisite
for behavior that fits into the legal field is his internal,
moral constitution, his inner self, which has been
formed to the extent that it is a regulator of mental,
and on the basis of mental, also practical, activity of
the individual. For the practical activity of a person is
the result of reflection of his mental processes.
And finally, the model of human behavior in
society always assumes the possibility of choice.
Meanwhile, such an alternative should be mediated
by the factor of free will (consciousness, will and
interest), that is, the choice should occur consciously
and voluntarily. And if, under all these factors and
conditions, a person allows and implements a variant
that violates rights, a model of behavior, it is
characteristic to talk about the deviant behavior of the
subject, guilt and the application of liability measures
to him, including legal ones.
REFERENCES
Vasilyeva, O., Korotkova, E., 2004. Features of
experiencing guilt in modern society. 12 (1). рр. 48–72.
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of 06/13/1996 N
63-FZ.
Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses
of December 30, 2001 N 195-FZ (as amended on
January 28, 2022).
Civil Code of the Russian Federation (parts one, two, three,
four).
Labor Code of the Russian Federation of December 30,
2001 N 197-FZ.
Malein, N. S., 2019. Offense: Concept, reasons,
responsibility. р. 192
Dubinina, N. P., Karpets, I. I., Kudryavtseva, V. N., 2020.
Genetics, behavior, responsibility: on the nature of
antisocial acts and ways to prevent them. р. 301.
Shipunova, T. V., 2019. The problem of synthesizing
theories of deviance. рр. 103-113.
Vanichkin, D. E., 2019. Criminological characteristics and
crime prevention in the region. p. 179.
Dal, V., 1995. Explanatory dictionary of the Great Russian
language. 4 volumes.
Ozhegov, S.I., 1986. Dictionary of the Russian language.
Rymarev, D.S., 2017. Guilt as a necessary condition for the
constitutional and legal responsibility of election
participants, р.176.
Official statistics on the crime rate in the Russian
Federation, https://www.fedstat.ru/indicator/58923.
Liability and Guilt: A Linguistic, Psychological and Socio-Legal Analysis
9
