Danubius International Conferences, 5th International Conference The Danube - Axis of European Identity
Mitigating and aggravating circumstances. Their impact on judicial individualization of punishment
Last modified: 2015-05-20
Abstract
For an act to fall under criminal law it is sufficient for it to meet the minimum conditions to achieve constitutive content of the offense. However, committing a criminal act takes place, in most cases, in a complex set of variables specific to each case, variables that, without characterizing the act as an offense or the perpetrator's person as subject of that offence, helps determining, on one hand, the social danger of the committed crime and, on the other hand, knowing the offender as an individual and its social dangerousness. Mitigating and aggravating circumstances are such variables and they have a specific impact on criminal responsibility of the perpetrator. These circumstances have a major influence on judicial individualization of punishment because their effect is preset by the Law and acts separately on the length or amount of punishment. This study aims both students and practitioners or academics and highlights on one hand, the legislative solutions of the new Criminal Code and on the other hand, the differences between the old and the new Criminal Code.
