Introduction. At the present stage of development of legal science and criminal legislation, no formal defi nition of the category «degree of public danger of a crime» has been developed, and there is no consensus on its content. In law enforcement practice, this circumstance complicates the process of objectively assessing the public danger of crimes provided for in Art. 156 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (failure to fulfi ll duties to raise a minor). Moreover, there is a confusion of related legal categories and a substitution of concepts, which signifi cantly complicates the procedure for qualifying such crimes. This does not contribute to the uniformity of law enforcement practice. In the study carried out by the author of the article, an attempt was made to formulate scientifi cally substantiated conclusions that would help resolve the problem. Methods. The study summarized the materials of investigative and judicial practice in cases of failure to fulfi ll duties to raise minors, combined with cruel treatment; analyzed the provisions of the current legislation; compared the obtained empirical data. Results. Various situations of failure to fulfi ll duties to raise a minor are considered, their specifi c features are identifi ed in the context of assessing the degree of public danger of crimes provided for in Article 156 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. A conclusion is formulated that the degree of public danger of failure to fulfi ll duties to raise a minor is a quantitative assessment criterion used for criminal-legal assessment of the public danger of an act, its content is determined.