Harassment as a New Criminal Offense. Criminal Law Characteristic of Harassment.

Over the past few years, the foreign word "harassment" has ceased to be something unusual for modern man. The legal problem is that society accustoms to associate harassment exclusively with its sexual definition. In fact, the term is much broader. Thesis work examined the harassment as a new criminal law phenomenon, revealed its main features and characteristics. According to the findings the thesis identified articles from Russian legislation falling under the characteristics of this term. Since the concept of harassment is absent in Russian criminal law, the main articles under consideration were Art. 133 and art. 136 of the Criminal Code. The main goal of the research was the analysis of harassment as a criminal law phenomenon. To achieve this goal the thesis studied the provisions of foreign laws on harassment and acts similar to it, analyzed the works of foreign and domestic legal scholars and reviewed various court decisions on this topic. The main results of the thesis were the regimentation of knowledge and opinions about the problem of harassment as well as suggestions and recommendations for improving Russian criminal law within the framework of the problem.