Briefly describe the types of principal offenders and the principles of criminal responsibility and

Principal offenders and their criminal responsibility: The ringleaders who organize and lead a criminal group to carry out criminal activities shall be punished in accordance with all the crimes committed by the group, that is, in addition to bearing criminal responsibility for the specific crimes they directly committed and their consequences, they must also bear criminal responsibility for all the crimes committed by the group members in accordance with the group's criminal plan. However, the ringleader is not criminally liable for crimes committed by the group members beyond the group criminal plan (group criminal intention).

Punishment for principal offenders other than the ringleader of a criminal group shall be divided into two situations: for those who organize or direct joint crimes, they shall be punished in accordance with all the crimes they organized and directed; Persons who did not engage in organizing or directing activities but played a major role in the joint crime shall be punished in accordance with the total number of crimes in which they participated.

Article 26 of the Criminal Law: A person who organizes or leads a criminal group to carry out criminal activities or plays a major role in a joint crime is the principal offender. A relatively fixed criminal organization formed by three or more persons for the purpose of jointly committing a crime is a criminal group. The ringleaders who organize and lead a criminal group are to be punished in accordance with all the crimes committed by the group.

Principal offenders other than those provided for in paragraph 3 shall be punished in accordance with all crimes in which they participated, organized, or directed.

Principal offender refers to a criminal who organizes or leads a criminal group to carry out criminal activities or plays a major role in a joint crime.

Legal basis: Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China

Article 61: When deciding on the punishment of criminals, they shall be sentenced in accordance with the relevant provisions of this Law on the basis of the facts of the crime, the nature and circumstances of the crime, and the degree of harm to society.

Article 62: Where criminals have the circumstances provided for in this Law for heavier or lighter punishments, they shall be given a criminal punishment within the legally-prescribed limits.

Article 63: Where criminals have mitigating circumstances provided for in this Law, they shall be sentenced below the sentence provided for in the Law, and where there are several sentencing ranges provided for in the Law, they shall be sentenced within the next sentencing range of the legally-prescribed sentencing range.

Answer]: The principal offender refers to the criminal who organizes and leads the criminal group to carry out criminal activities or plays a major role in the joint crime, and the principal offender is divided into two types: the first type refers to the criminal who organizes and leads the criminal group to carry out criminal activities, that is, the ringleader of the criminal group; The second type refers to the criminals who play a major role in the joint crime, and there are the following types of principal offenders compared to the ringleaders of the criminal group, also known as other principal offenders or principal offenders other than the ringleaders:

1) Criminals who play a major role in a criminal group. (2) Criminals who play a major role in the general joint crime. (3) Criminals who play a major role in assembling a crowd to commit crimes.

The criminal liability of the principal offender under the Criminal Code is provided for separately according to two different types of principal offenders:

1) Criminal responsibility of the ringleaders: Paragraph 3 of Article 26 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that the ringleaders who organize and lead a criminal group shall be punished according to all the crimes committed by the group.

2) Criminal responsibility of principal offenders other than the ringleaders: Paragraph 26 and Paragraph 4 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that principal offenders other than those specified in paragraph 3 shall be punished according to the crimes of agglomerating all of them in which they participated or organized and directed.

It should be noted that the specific provisions of the Criminal Law provide for the corresponding statutory punishment for the ringleader of the criminal group and the ringleader of the group to commit a crime in the case of necessary joint crimes, and the punishment of such principal offenders should be carried out in accordance with the relevant provisions of the special provisions of the Criminal Law.