THE CONCEPT AND THEORETICAL-LEGAL CHARACTERIZATION OF COMPLICITY IN CRIME

Abstract

The institution of complicity in crime occupies a significant position in criminal law because the commission of an offence by several persons involves complex relationships between participants, differences in their functional roles, and various forms of joint criminal conduct. The purpose of this study is to examine the concept, legal nature, historical development, and theoretical foundations of complicity in crime, with particular attention to the distinction between the type of participant and the form of complicity. The study applies comparative-historical, formal-legal, doctrinal, and analytical methods to examine the development of the institution in Russian, Soviet, and contemporary Uzbek criminal law. The analysis demonstrates that the concept of complicity has evolved from an undifferentiated understanding of joint criminal conduct toward a more structured legal institution based on the number of participants, intentional joint conduct, the nature of their interaction, and the distribution of criminal functions. Particular attention is given to the accessory theory of complicity and to scholarly approaches concerning the social dangerousness of joint criminal conduct. The study argues that the form of complicity should be distinguished from the type of participant and should primarily be determined by the nature and degree of interaction among participants rather than by the individual function performed by a particular person.