Conceptual conflict - conceptual conflict

This refers to cases where multiple crimes are established from a single act (see the first paragraph of Article 54, Paragraph 1 of the Penal Code). For example, when a single bullet from a pistol is fired with the intent of killing a person, it hits someone nearby instead of the intended target, resulting in the death of the person, or when a person sets fire to a building with the intent of killing the occupant and burns them to death. According to legal precedents, in the first case, two crimes, attempted murder and completed murder, are established, and in the second case, murder and arson, are established, but because the act of the perpetrator is a single act, they are treated as a single crime in terms of sentencing, as conceptual conflict. In such cases, even though multiple crimes are established from a single act, the first paragraph of Article 54, Paragraph 1 of the Penal Code means that the perpetrator "shall be punished with the most severe punishment" (Note that in addition to this, a crime of complicity can also be classified as a single crime in terms of sentencing, see the second paragraph of Article 54, Paragraph 1 of the Penal Code).

[Tetsuro Nawa]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

一個の行為について複数の犯罪が成立する場合をいう（刑法54条1項前段参照）。たとえば、人を殺害する目的でピストルの弾1発を発射したところ、ねらった人ではなく、たまたま近くにいた人に命中して死亡した場合、建物の居住者を殺害する目的で建物に放火して焼死させる場合などである。判例によれば、前の事例では殺人未遂罪と殺人既遂罪の二罪が、また、後の事例では殺人罪と放火罪の二罪が成立するが、行為者の行為は一個であることから、観念的競合として、科刑上は一罪として扱われる。このような場合、一個の行為に対して複数の犯罪が成立するにもかかわらず、刑法第54条1項前段によって、「その最も重い刑に処する」ことになる（なお、科刑上の一罪には、このほかに牽連犯(けんれんはん)がある。刑法第54条1項後段）。

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