© 2016, Baikal National University of Economics and Law. All rights reserved. The article is devoted to the criminological description of crimes set by the Article 216 of the CC of the RF and to the problems of legislative regulation of responsibility for these crimes. It presents official statistics as well as the results of the authors’ research of court practice. The authors analyze the level, dynamics, consequences and subjects of the discussed crimes. They de scribe the most typical violations of safety rules in mining, building and other activities as well as the professions of persons prosecuted under Art. 216 of the CC of the RF. Research shows that the number of such crimes has been increasing since 2010, which is primarily due to the increase in employment in the spheres of construction, mining and other activities. The legal consequences of crimes under Art. 216 of the CC of the RF are, mainly, suspended sentences (46 % of persecuted persons), fines (22 %) and relief from criminal liability due to reconciliation with the victim (25 %). The crimes under analysis are mainly connected with violating the rules of loading and unloading (21 % of all cases), working without fencing and guarding mechanisms (21 %), collapse of soil or rock (16 %). The largest share of those held criminally liable are lower managers - 48 % of all persecuted persons. The authors also characterize the approaches of lawmakers in different countries to the formulation and inclusion in legislation the norms regulating criminal liability for violating industrial safety requirements. Besides, the authors discuss the issue of liability stipulated in Russian criminal law for violating safety rules in designing objects and carrying out engineering surveys. They stress that all the existing qualifications of such violations offered by criminal law theory are flawed. They also argue that the CC of the RF should be amended by including these.