Criminal Law Meaning of Lost Profits

Abstract

Assessing the damage caused by a crime is one of the complex issues in the theory of criminal law and the practice of applying the law. The legal characteristics of lost profits as a type of damages have not yet been fully explored even in the civil law aspect, which affects the definition of the nature of material damage in criminal law and, as a consequence, damage resulting from crimes. The paper examines various approaches to the criminal law meaning of lost profits. It is concluded that the criminal law specifics of lost profits in economic crimes imply an integral component (lost profits and actual damage) of the nature and amount of damage, since the assessment of lost profits affects the qualitative and quantitative criteria of damage. The need to consider loss profits as an element of a crime in the economic sphere is evidenced by the peculiarity of the generic, direct object, the objective side in relation to a specific act. For the purposes of criminal law, it is important to establish lost profits in the form of failure to receive what is due, while the form of failure to receive what is probable is not important for classification of a crime.