Contents
Greetings, dear friends! Just recently, I asked myself the question: “In which countries and how is the punishment of persons who committed a crime while intoxicated more severe?”. I decided to read about it on the Internet.
Searches show up only those resources that talk about drunk drivers, although I need to know about aggravated crimes in general.
I found interesting information, oddly enough, not in the usual life magazine blogs, but only in scientific papers. Apparently, some kind of secret information, not for a simple layman …
These are the resources to use
In which countries being drunk while committing a crime increases the punishment?
Naturally, there is information about the legislation of Muslim states where Sharia is in force. These are Iran, Saudi Arabia and others.
Here, alcohol intoxication not only aggravates the punishment, but also becomes an independent crime. In some aul, drunkenness can be beaten in a pre-trial order, according to Sharia, this is called “100 sticks”.
There is also a non-Muslim country that tightens the penalties for drunken criminals – Denmark.
The Danes don’t stand on ceremony with drunks.
Paragraph 138 of the Criminal Code of this country (who would have thought!) states that a citizen who has brought himself to such a state is negligent, dangerous to society and subject to a fine. And sometimes imprisonment.
In Bulgaria, intoxication is an aggravating circumstance if the offender has committed murder.
In Uzbekistan (paragraph “o” of article 56 of the Criminal Code), depending on the nature of the crime, the court may not recognize the fact that the offender was intoxicated as an aggravating circumstance.
In which countries and in what cases it can reduce the punishment
Chapter 35 of the Austrian Criminal Code states that the court has the right to mitigate the punishment of a person if he was drunk at the time of the crime, to the point of insanity.
It’s more interesting in Iceland, where they can generally exempt a person who got drunk to the point of losing self-control from liability, this is Article 17 of the Criminal Code.
In Iceland, they are very loyal to drunkards, maybe even too much.
The Criminal Code of Lithuania states that a person forced to use intoxicating substances (including alcohol) is released from liability if he has committed a minor crime. When committing serious acts, the punishment can be mitigated.
Where the drunken state does not affect the punishment in any way
Germany and the principle of “voluntary intoxication”. If the offender committed a crime while intoxicated, then his punishment is not subject to mitigation, since the accused took alcohol voluntarily, that is, he brought himself to such a state.
The same applies to Norway and Brazil, article 26 CC and paragraph 45 respectively. In Poland, too, it is stated that the accused could have foreseen or foresaw the commission of the crime when drinking alcohol. He did it voluntarily, so liability cannot be mitigated.
For example, in the United States and Switzerland, only certain crimes committed by persons while intoxicated are subject to mitigation or aggravation.
Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Philippines mitigates the punishment if a person did not control himself when committing a criminal act, and intoxication was not habitual (not an alcoholic) or forced. Otherwise, aggravation.
Where is the maximum rigidity, and where is the softness in dealing with drunks
The maximum cruelty, of course, is observed in the Arab countries, where drunkenness in itself is a crime. “Haram” is Arabic for “prohibition”, and according to the codes of Sharia, the use of drugs and alcohol is prohibited and should be severely punished.
Denmark, as we have seen, generally defines a drunk person as a careless “cattle” that needs to be fined or shut down.
In China, since 2009, drunk drivers who have committed road accidents that resulted in the death of at least one citizen have been shot, and relatives of those executed have been forced to pay compensation of about $23 to the families of the victims.
The mildest attitude is in Iceland, Lithuania and Austria, and now, dear friends, let’s discuss Russia, where this issue has still remained controversial.
After all, in our country, punishments for drunken criminals are either aggravated or mitigated, even if it concerns the same nature of the crime – “how many Courts, so many opinions.” The wording in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus is common: “Subject to criminal punishment” and that’s it.
Here, for Russian drivers who commit “drunken accidents” (tragedies), punishments have already been toughened – do you think that such a measure of struggle will affect all other criminals acting “under a degree”?
It seems to me that the toughening of drunken accidents somehow slightly reduces the number of such accidents, but you still need to deal with them somehow. Just how?