UDK: 343.7

Marina An. Popova - post graduate of the department ‘Criminal law, criminal procedure and criminalistics’ of the Law Institute of the Russian University of Transport

Abstract. In Criminal law, a mercenary motive is one of the predominant motives that has a criminal and legal value due to its rather frequent consolidation in criminal law norms, both as an obligatory sign of the subjective side of the crime, and as an additional or optional one. Meanwhile, in the criminal legislation there is neither legal definition of a mercenary motive, nor a section or chapter highlighting the list of mercenary crimes that make up the predominant part of modern crime. The gap is filled up by the various interpretations of both a mercenary motive and mercenary crimes, accompanied by their multiple classifications according to various criteria. Undoubtedly, a theft is one of the mercenary crimes, which is a significant part of all registered criminality in the Russian Federation, as well as crimes committed on transport. In this regard, the current paper has presented a brief criminological description of thefts committed on rail, air, river and maritime modes of transport. For this purpose, the author has analyzed the dynamics of thefts for the period from 2015-2019, identifying and evaluating their share in the structure of transport crime. The author has noted that the greatest number of thefts was committed annually in rail transport, therefore, they could act as a statistical image of thefts committed on transport. This fact has predetermined the author’s choice when characterizing the state and dynamics of certain types of thefts, including those committed on trains, at railway stations and stations, theft of goods on railway transport, theft of petroleum products, metals.

Keywords: mercenary motives; motive of crime; crimes against property; criminality; mercenary crimes; theft.

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