Four forms of crime, namely: crime preparation, crime suspension, attempted crime and accomplished crime.

1, crime preparation

Crime preparation refers to the situation that tools are prepared and conditions are created for committing a crime, but the perpetrator fails to commit a crime due to reasons other than his will. Characteristics of crime preparation:

(1), subjectively a crime. "Crime" refers to committing crimes for oneself and others.

(2), objectively implemented the crime preparation behavior. "Crime preparation" includes tools for preparing to commit crimes, and takes everything as a condition for committing crimes.

(3) In fact, the crime was not committed. The impossibility of committing a crime includes two situations: "impossible crime without completing the preparatory act" and "impossible crime for some reason despite having completed the preparatory act".

(4) Failure to commit a crime due to reasons other than the will of the perpetrator. If the actor voluntarily abandons the preparatory act or voluntarily refuses to commit the crime, the preparation for the crime is not established, but the crime is suspended.

Article 22 of China's criminal law stipulates: "The preparatory offender may be given a lighter, mitigated or exempted punishment.

Step 2 stop crime

Interruption of crime refers to the situation of automatically giving up crime or automatically and effectively preventing the occurrence of criminal results in the process of crime.

Interruption of crime has four characteristics: timeliness, automaticity, objectivity and effectiveness.

(1), timeliness of suspension; The suspension of crime must occur in the process of crime, that is, the suspension of crime can occur in both the preparation stage of crime and the implementation stage of crime; The crime is not over yet, neither attempted nor accomplished. If the crime is automatically restored to its original state after completion, it is not established that the crime is suspended, and the crime cannot be stopped after the attempted crime.

(2) the automaticity of suspension; That is to say, the actor objectively realizes that there is the possibility of continuing the crime or the possibility of accomplishment, but voluntarily gives up the original criminal intention.

(3) Objectivity of suspension;

(4) Effect of suspension. The suspension of a crime must be the result of a completed crime that has not yet occurred, otherwise it will not be established.

The establishment of criminal suspension does not require that there is no criminal result, but that there is no criminal result as a sign of accomplishment.

Article 24 of China's criminal law stipulates: "If the discontinuer has not caused damage, he shall be exempted from punishment; If damage is caused, the punishment shall be mitigated. "

3. Attempted crime

Attempted crime refers to the situation that a crime has been committed and failed due to reasons other than the will of the offender.

Characteristics of attempted crime:

(1), the crime has started and the criminal behavior has entered the implementation stage.

(2) the crime failed. Usually there is no criminal result, but not all criminal results are successful.

(3) The failure of the crime is due to reasons other than the will of the offender. It mainly includes three situations: restraining criminal will, restraining criminal behavior and restraining criminal result.

Article 23 of China's criminal law stipulates that "attempted crime may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment according to the completed crime".

4. Accomplished crime

Accomplished crime is the completed form of intentional crime, which means that the criminal act committed by the perpetrator has all the constitutive requirements of the crime stipulated in the specific provisions of criminal law.

The types of accomplished crimes can be divided into behavioral crimes, consequential crimes and dangerous crimes.

The accomplished offender of intentional crime shall be directly convicted and punished in accordance with the penalty specifications stipulated in the specific provisions of the Criminal Law.

It should be noted that there are only direct intentional crimes in the above-mentioned criminal forms, while negligent crimes and indirect intentional crimes do not exist in the forms of criminal preparation, attempted crimes and criminal suspension, and it is not necessary to identify their crimes as accomplished. For them, it's just a matter of conviction or not.

Second, the difference between discontinuation of crime and attempted crime

After understanding the four forms of intentional crime, let's discuss the difference between criminal suspension and attempted crime. It seems to be a foregone conclusion in the theory of criminal law how to distinguish between criminal suspension and attempted crime, that is, the basis for distinguishing between criminal suspension and attempted crime is whether the perpetrator automatically stops committing criminal acts. However, in judicial practice, the theoretical controversy about the retroactivity of crime termination and attempted crime is contrary to the basic spirit of the rule of law.

The legislative differences between discontinuance of crime and attempted crime.

In the Anglo-American legal system, discontinuance of crime is usually treated as attempted crime, and no special consideration is given to punishment. In the civil law system, attempted crime mostly stipulates that the criminal responsibility of the perpetrator must be reduced or mitigated. However, the provisions of criminal laws in all countries are almost the same, that is, either the punishment is exempted or the punishment is mitigated. For example, Article 43 of the Japanese Criminal Law stipulates: "Those who have started to commit crimes but have not done so may be given a mitigated punishment, but those who voluntarily stop committing crimes shall be given a mitigated punishment or be exempted from punishment." . ① Paragraph 2, Paragraph 3 and Paragraph 4 of Article 56 of Italian Criminal Law respectively stipulate: "The degree of punishment for attempted crime is as follows. When the statutory punishment is life imprisonment, the attempted offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of 12 years or more; In other cases, the punishment shall be reduced by one-third to two-thirds according to this punishment. " "If the criminal voluntarily suspends the act, the punishment stipulated in the act will only apply if the completed act itself constitutes other crimes." "If the result is voluntarily prevented, only the penalty stipulated in the crime of attempted crime will be imposed, and it will be reduced by one third to one half." (2) Article 23 of China's Criminal Law stipulates: "If a crime has been committed, but it fails due to reasons other than the will of the criminals, it is an attempted crime. For the attempted crime, it can be lightened or mitigated according to the crime. " Article 24 stipulates: "In the course of committing a crime, if you voluntarily give up or the result of the crime is automatically and effectively prevented, the crime will be suspended. If the discontinuer does not cause damage, he shall be exempted from punishment; If damage is caused, the punishment shall be mitigated. " It can be seen that our criminal law, like the criminal laws of many countries, has completely different provisions on attempted crime and discontinued crime. For attempted crime, it is "possible" to be lenient; It is "should" to stop crimes with leniency. Moreover, the content of leniency is also very different. The discontinued crime can at least be mitigated, and the attempted crime can at most be mitigated in principle. Obviously, the punishment for discontinuing a crime in all countries is lighter than that for attempting a crime. However, what prompted legislators in various countries to give such lenient punishment to the discontinuer?

From objective imputation to subjective imputation, and then to the conviction principle of the unity of subject and object, human beings have experienced a similar course in the history of criminal law thought. It is not difficult for us to find the answer from the perspective of penalty teleology. People's activities have conscious initiative, but this does not mean absolute freedom of will. People's knowledge and activities are not arbitrary, but are restricted by objective existence and objective laws. Only by correctly understanding and applying objective laws can people obtain the relative freedom of will. It can be seen that the criminal's criminal behavior is chosen according to his own will, which makes him in a position opposite to the public, and the behavior generated by his will is bound to be negatively evaluated and restricted by the criminal law. Therefore, criminals should bear criminal responsibility for acts that endanger society caused by their own will.

The different provisions on the discontinuation of crime and attempted crime in legislation are based on the research of the teleology of punishment and the consideration of criminal policy. The key to distinguish between criminal suspension and attempted crime lies in whether the will of the actor is worthy of legislative praise, which is also the most fundamental standard to judge criminal suspension and attempted crime. Using this standard can not only solve many controversial problems in the interpretation of crime theory, but also facilitate judicial practice. For example, in a case of intentional homicide, in order to get away, the victim promised the offender the conditions to meet his requirements in the future, and the offender believed it and stopped committing the crime. How should this situation be characterized? From the annotation level, on the one hand, when the criminal gives up his criminal intention, there is no external obstacle to the completion of his behavior, and he can commit a crime completely. This situation of stopping the crime because of one's own will is only based on the idea that the crime has not been completed. On the other hand, the situation in which a criminal stops committing a crime after receiving a false promise from the victim is the same as the situation in which the criminal mistakenly thinks that there are obstacles that hinder the implementation of his criminal behavior (but in fact this objective obstacle does not exist, but is an obstacle in understanding), resulting in an attempted crime, except that the latter thinks that the crime can no longer be completed. But the same thing is that the criminal made a wrong judgment because of his wrong understanding of the facts, and gave up the criminal behavior based on this wrong judgment, which violated the criminal's true meaning. In this case, the actor did not really give up the criminal intention, nor did he regret the crime. There is no legal advocacy, so I think this situation should be characterized as attempted crime. Another example is when the victim is an acquaintance and the criminal gives up the crime. Personally, I think this situation should be characterized as attempted crime. Because targeting acquaintances will make criminals feel that they will face the danger of losing their reputation or even going to jail. In this case, the act of giving up the crime is not for the offender to sincerely repent and re-recognize the legal value, but to protect himself. The criminal act stopped in this case violates the original intention of the suspension system established in legislation.

Compared with attempted crime, the former stopped because of his own will, while the latter stopped because of obstacles. Criminals show different subjective malignancy and personal danger. In order to better realize the functions of respecting human rights and social defense, criminal law must treat them differently. The reason why the legislation stipulates that "the suspended offender shall be exempted or mitigated punishment" and "the attempted offender may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment compared with the accomplished offender" is based on the study of the purpose of punishment, so as to urge the perpetrator to pull back from the brink, give up the criminal act being carried out or actively and effectively prevent the occurrence of criminal results, and complete the functions of standardization, protection and education in the original intention of legislation.