Material object of crime

“Material object of crime”, the person (i.e., real person) or thing on which the criminal action is performed on, has a great importance in terms of general and special provisions of criminal law. Material object of crime is taken into consideration in terms of reasons that serve to distinguish similar offences from each other, aggravate or mitigate the punishment, and to determine cases of impossible crime or attempt. It can also be used as an ancillary criterion for the classification of crimes in the penal code. For this reason, material object of crime must be identified fully and accurately. When identifying the material object of crime, it is necessary to examine the norm that constitutes the crime, and the person or thing on which the criminal action has been performed must be the specific person or thing stipulated in this norm. Material object of some crimes is qualified, and must be of a certain legal or de facto nature. When the concept of the material object of crime is handled with a naturalistic point of view, material object must be something corporeal and existing in nature. Intangible things such as legal entities, or groups of persons, cannot be the material object of crime. In addition to this, not every crime has a material object, while some crimes may have more than one material object. Since material object of crime helps to distinguish the similar crimes from each other, it has a distinctive function in this respect. The concept of material object of crime should not be confused with similar concepts, especially criminal action, or the victim of crime. As a matter of fact, although material object of crime and the victim of crime may coincide in some instances, these are different concepts altogether.