On the question of the reasons (grounds) for establishing responsibility for committing mass riots
The article examines the grounds for establishing criminal responsibility for the commission of mass riots. The author identifies the reasons (grounds) that take into account the nature and degree of public danger of mass riots and allow criminalizing this act. Among these reasons, the following are highlighted: the public danger of mass riots (consisting both in possible damage to property, health of citizens, disruption of the functioning of organizations, transport and authorities, and in exerting a serious destructive influence on citizens); the prevalence (frequency) of the commission of the act in question (assuming that not isolated socially dangerous encroachments are recognized as a crime, but acts having a precedent character); the consistency of state and public points of view on the need to criminalize a socially dangerous act, determined by the social need to protect public relations using criminal legal means; potential consequences that may result from the commission of a socially dangerous act, including the development of uncontrolled processes that threaten the current constitutional order. Great importance is given in the article to the influence of a socially dangerous act on the motivation and emotional state of young people, which in most cases are the main driving force of mass riots, the reasons for the active participation and involvement of young people in illegal actions are highlighted. The author of the article also provides examples from law enforcement practice, provides statistical data on the number of persons brought to criminal responsibility for committing mass riots, and also makes a retrospective analysis of the consequences of mass riots that occurred on the territory of the Russian Federation and a number of foreign countries over the past decade.