CC BY
15СПОРТИВНОЕ ПРАВО И ЭКОНОМИКА СПОРТА
SPORTS LAW AND ECONOMICS OF SPORT
УДК 796.8 ББК 75.715
COMBAT SPORTS: LEGAL ASPECTS
V. D. Ivanov, V. A. Valiullina
Chelyabinsk State University, Russia, Chelyabinsk
This article defines legal aspects of sports in the field of martial arts, namely, criminal legal issues, their problems and solutions.
Keywords: sports, martial arts, athlete, law crime.
Competitive activity takes up one of the principal places in education and prevention of law-infringement.
One of the main interests of people is sport. Sports activities provide opportunities for a thorough development of personality. They inculcate discipline; make it possible to improve one's physical and moral aspects [3].
Nowadays the system of management of Physical Education and Sports in Russia is far from perfect on both federal and regional levels. Legal bases of the Physical Education and Sports sphere don't allow for a complete fulfillment of each citizen's constitutional right to join physical education classes. Neither does the legislation permit full-grown development of professional sports [1; 2].
In an address by the President of Russian Federation V. V. Putin to the federal assembly on 04.12.2014 it is mentioned that "he development of a country doesn't depend solely on an economic success, but also to a large extent on spiritual and physical health of the nation... The health of a nation today depends not only on the public healthcare, but also on the lifestyle of people".
In an action plan in the areas of Social Policy and Modernization of Economics, which was put to force by the Government of Russian Federation on October 29 (№ 1507-p), the development of popular physical education and sports is considered to be one of the strategic aims of the Government's social policy [5].
The objectives of the work are: to consider legal aspects of martial arts, take into account difficult issues, analyze sports legislation and expound on the methods of combating crime in this area.
The topic "Legal aspects in the area of martial arts" has been chosen for a reason. Interest to sports in general and to martial arts in particular is steadily growing and a lot of measures were taken in Russia during the recent years for the promotion and development of it. The Government takes an active part in the creation of the infrastructure, it supports athletes and coaches.
But at the same time the competitive factor of combat sports has a criminogenic side to it.
At present we are faced with the problem of a poor development of sports legislation in Russia. There are many difficulties concerning the evaluation and punishment of crimes committed by professional martial artists.
Many sportsmen that have special training in the area of power- and mixed martial arts (wushu, karate, aikido, taekwondo, jiu-jitsu, judo, sambo) take classes at commercial sports groups that usually omit serious and responsible educational work. Not to mention that "sports" shadow economy involves organization and conduction of ultimate fighting contests that often lead to severe injuries or even death of fighters.
Mass media demonstrates statistics of the increase of criminality among novice martial artists: racket rises by 35 %, hooliganism — 30 %, theft — 40 %, sports forgery — 30 %, usury — 15 %, other — 2 %.
Combat Sports: Legal Aspects
The statistics' conclusion is that violation of sports ethics by sports school students has a nature of a criminal act [6] .
This confirms a criminal case of a 25-year-old Dagestan native Rasul Mirzaev who murdered a 19-year-old Ivan Agafonov. Rasul, being a world champion of mixed martial arts, had an obvious advantage over Ivan.
Intentional harm infliction during sports events is quite a widespread phenomenon that doesn't usually lead to a criminal responsibility for the aggressor when such an action takes place in a contact sport (karate, hand-to-hand fighting, sambo, etc.) [7].
"A use by martial artists of their skills is in effect a use of a weapon that they employ consciously, violently and mercilessly. Martial artists benefit from their superior strengths over other citizens and appeal for help to sports organizations and coaches that can find mitigating factors to downplay their crimes", replies the Council of the Federation of Russia.
The Federal Law "About physical education and sports in Russian Federation" lacks the legal norm that would define the liability of people specially trained in martial arts in case they use their abilities against defenseless citizens [3].
State Duma deputies propose a stricter punishment for the crimes committed by people who have a special training in the sphere of martial arts. The authors of the draft law "About making changes in the Penal code of Russian Federation" are the deputies of the political fraction LDPR. In the explanatory memorandum to the draft law they note that "delinquency levels among athletes are rather high". Some sportsmen suffer socio-psychical deformation of character during their trainings.
The authors of the draft law propose adding to the Penal code the new article 105.1 "Murder or infliction of physical harm by a person trained in martial arts". Its first part suggests a punishment for a murder: deprivation of liberty for a period of 10 to 15 years with the limitation of liberty for the period of 6 months to 2 years. The second part of the article prescribes punishment for a grievous bodily harm inflicted with a special cruelty, for hire or out of mercenary motives; when it is connected with robbery, extortion or banditry, as well as for motives of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hate. Such crimes are punished with a deprivation of liberty for a period of 7 to 12 years with a 1-million-ruble fine. Moreover, the draft law authors believe that it is necessary to include the new aggravating circumstance — commit-
ment of a crime by a person trained in martial arts — to the article 63 of the Penal code [5].
Problems of combating the martial artists' criminal offences are defined by a number of circumstances.
Firstly, the number of grave crimes grows among juvenile martial artists as well as the severity of caused damage; motivation for crime commitment becomes more exaggerated.
Secondly, martial arts' techniques are often employed in crimes, thereby increasing their social danger.
Thirdly, destructive sentiments among the youth, the cult of physical strengths may attribute to the high overall crime level, including violent crimes [8].
The improvement of the effectiveness of crime prevention among martial artists by the means of Penal legislation should be considered one of the most urgent problems.
A matter of prosecution of athletes who have caused bodily harm to their opponents depends on several factors: an intention to cause harm and violate rules of a competition; nature of injuries caused to the opponent. To assess such actions correctly it is advisable to: a) introduce the article "Infringement of the rules of sports competitions" to the Penal legislation; b) decriminalize infliction of trivial bodily injuries at sports contests as such injuries are often unavoidable. Moreover, legal cases concerning them would unnecessarily enlarge criminal repression [7].
Thus, the analysis of various situations in which sports and crime are interconnected emphasizes the most urgent ones. Solving them requires a certain improvement of other law branches, in particular the one that regulates physical education and sports:
In order to guarantee the citizens their right of self-defense, it is necessary to make following additions to the Penal code article 13 "Statutory self-defense":
a) a right for a self-defense exists regardless of age, motives of an assaulter and if there had been a possibility to flee or to avoid the infliction of damage in other way;
b) to exceed the limits of justifiable self-defense means to intentionally cause death, grave or medium bodily harm when it could be avoided;
c) a person who for the reasons of fright, agitation or carelessness wasn't able to properly assess the danger of the situation and thus exceeded the limits of statutory self-defense may be absolved by jury from criminal liability or may receive a milder punishment [9];
d) to introduce to the law of Physical Education and Sports a clear concept of a preventive role of sports in juvenile criminality;
Physical Culture. Sport. Tourism. Motor recreation. 2016. Vol. 1, no. 2
103
V. D. Ivanov, V. A. Valiullina
e) to introduce to the law of Physical Education and Sports limitations on training of certain categories of adolescents (with previous convictions for lucrative crimes or crimes against a person, and for the teenagers with mental handicap); to authorize only the coaches qualified in the areas of sports and pedagogy for the training of adolescents.
Having analyzed this problem it is possible to conclude that all the mentioned measures make possible the increase of the effectiveness of combating crime committed by sportsmen who practice martial arts.
Scientific literature
1. Конституция Российской Федерации : офиц. текст. - М. : Проспект, 2008.
2. Уголовный кодекс Российской Федерации : Фе-дер. закон Рос. Федерации от 13 июня 1996 г. № 63-ФЗ (ред. от 27 июля 2009 г. № 215-ФЗ).
3. О физической культуре и спорте в Российской
Поступила в редакцию: 26 ноября 2015 г.
Федерации : Федер. закон Рос. Федерации от 4 дек. 2007 г. № 329-Ф3.
4. Бальсевич, В. К. Перспектива развития общей теории и технологий спортивной подготовки и физического воспитания / В. К. Бальсевич // Теория и практика физ. культуры. - 1997. - № 6.
5. О практике назначения судами уголовного наказания : Постановление Пленума Верхов. Суда РФ от 11 июня 1999 г. № 40 // Бюл. Верхов. Суда РФ. -2012. - № 8.
6. Статистические данные о преступности и правонарушениях по Российской Федерации. - М. : МВД РФ, 2012. - 49 с.
7. Игнатов, А. Н. Спорт, преступления, ответственность / Н. А. Игнатов // Человек и закон. -2001. - № 11-12.
8. Родиченко, В. С. Актуальные проблемы вида спорта / В. С. Родиченко // Теория и практика физ. культуры. - 2003. - № 5.
9. Юшков, Ю. Н. Институт необходимой обороны и его роль в борьбе с преступностью в современных условиях / Н. Ю. Юшков // Гос-во и право. - 2002. - № 4.
Для цитирования: Ivanov, V. D. Combat Sports: Legal Aspects / V. D. Ivanov, V. A. Valiullina // Физическая культура. Спорт. Туризм. Двигательная рекреация. - 2016. - Т. 1, № 2. - С. 102-104.
Информация об авторах
Иванов Валентин Дмитриевич — кандидат педагогических наук, доцент кафедры физического воспитания и спорта, Челябинский государственный университет. Челябинск, Россия. vdy-55@mail.ru
Валиуллина Виктория Альбертовна — студентка Института права, Челябинский государственный университет. Челябинск, Россия. vika-val96@mail.ru
References
1. Konstitutsiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii [The Constitution of the Russian Federation]. Moscow, 2008. (In Russ.)
2. Ugolovnyiy kodeks Rossiyskoy Federatsii: Feder-alnyiy zakon ot 13.06.1996 № 63-FZ [Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: Federal Law of 13.06.1996, no. 63-®3] (In Russ.).
3. O fizicheskoy kulture i sporte v Rossiyskoy Federatsii: Federalnyiy zakon Rossiyskoy Federatsii ot 4 dek-abrya 2007 g. N 329-FZ [On Physical Culture and Sport in the Russian Federation: the Federal law of the Russian Federation of 4 December 2007 no. 329-FZ]. (In Russ.).
4. Balsevich V.K. Perspektiva razvitiya obschey teo-rii i tehnologiy sportivnoy podgotovki i fizicheskogo vospitaniya [The Prospect of Development of General Theory and Technologies of Sports Training and Physical Education]. Teoriya ipraktikafizkulturyi [Theory and Practice of Physical Culture], 1997, no. 6. (In Russ.).
5. O praktike naznacheniya sudami ugolovnogo na-kazaniya. Postanovlenie Plenuma Verhovnogo Suda RF ot 11.06.1999 g. no. 40. [About Practice of Appointment
by Courts of Criminal Punishment. The Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of 11.06.1999, no. 40]. Byulleten Verhovnogo Suda RF [Bulletin of the Supreme Court], 2012, no. 8. (In Russ.).
6. Statisticheskie dannyie o prestupnosti i pravona-rusheniyah po RF [Statistics on Crime and Offences of the Russian Federation]. Moscow, 2012. 49 p. (In Russ.).
7. Ignatov A.N. Sport, prestupleniya, otvetstvennost [Sports, Crimes, Responsibility]. Chelovek i zakon [The Man and the Law], 2001, no. 11-12. (In Russ.).
8. Rodichenk V.S. Aktualnyie problemyi vida sporta [Actual Problems of Sport]. Teoriya i praktika fiziches-koy kultury [Theory and Practice of Physical Culture], 2003, no. 5. (In Russ.).
9. Yushkov Yu.N. Institut neobhodimoy oboronyi i ego rol v borbe s prestupnostyu v sovremennyih us-loviyah [The Institute of Necessary Defence and its Role in the Fight Against Crime in Modern Conditions]. Gosudarstvo i pravo [The State and Law], 2002, no. 4. (In Russ.).
