Scientific ideas on continuing crimes were formed in Russian criminal law in the XIX century under the influence of European legal doctrine. The regulation in the Code of Criminal and Correctional Punishments of 1845 is based on the experience of the countries of continental Europe. Since the reception of the doctrine of continuing crimes is carried out from German and French criminal law, a study of the modern legislative and law enforcement experience of Germany and France has been undertaken.

Research methods: general scientific (analysis, synthesis, analogy, description) and private scientific (historical-legal, comparativelegal).

Conclusions: Despite the primacy of German and French criminal law in the development of the doctrine of a continuing crime, its signs and rules of criminal law assessment have not received legislative regulation, remaining at the level of legal doctrine and judicial practice. At the same time, German criminal law has distinguished in the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Germany the legal (Vollendung) and the material (actual) end of a criminal act (Beendigung), which is significant for continuing crimes.

The level of doctrinal development of the theory of continuing crimes in the studied countries cannot be considered sufficient. Some representatives of science in Germany and Russia still reproduce clearly outdated ideas, according to which the continuity of the commission of a continuing crime is explained by the emergence of a certain “criminal state” in which the guilty person remains after the legal end of the act until its actual completion. Insufficient theoretical elaboration of the understanding of the continuing crime has a negative impact on law enforcement activities.

Of considerable interest are the rules of sentencing developed by the judicial practice of Germany. If, during the commission of a continuing crime, the punishment for it increases, then a more repressive criminal law is applied, which is in effect at the actual end of the act. But when sentencing, a more lenient law is taken into account, which has been in effect since the beginning of the continuing crime, which ensures a fairer individualization of punishment.