BRINGING A MINOR INTO A STATE OF INTOXICATION: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LEGAL COMPOSITION OF AN ADMINISTRATIVE OFFENCE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the characterization of the legal elements of the administrative offence under Article 180 «Bringing a minor to the state of intoxication» of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences (CUAO). The author substantiates the connection of the administrative offence under Article 180 of the CUAO with many other unlawful acts, both administrative (130, 173-2, 178, 179, 184 of the CUAO) and criminal law (166, 167, 304 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The author points to a certain identity between drunkenness, which may be a one-off event, and alcohol intoxication, which makes it difficult to distinguish between the administrative offence under Article 180 CUAO and the crime enshrined in Article 304 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Given a certain kinship of the unlawful acts, one may argue that there is a dissonance in the types and scope of sanctions provided for by law. The author concludes that administrative and legal sanctions for committing an offence under Article 180 CUAO need to be strengthened, since the risks to a child’s health cannot be assessed by a fine of up to UAH 136. The author emphasizes that the text of the Code of Administrative Offences contains terms and phrases that do not correspond to modern views. The concept of «minor person» should be replaced by the concept of «child», «state of intoxication» by «alcohol intoxication», etc. The author points out the expediency of supplementing the content of Article 180 of the CUAO with part two (qualified composition), where the subject of the offence will be the child’s close persons with a greater scope of administrative liability. To simplify the distinction between administrative and criminal offences, the author suggests that one-time actions should be considered as those falling within the scope of the CUAO – bringing to alcohol intoxication, while repeated (more than twice) commission of such an offence should entail criminal liability under Article 304 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The author emphasizes that the problem of population alcoholisation is complex in nature and therefore requires comprehensive measures to solve.