Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Department of Law, College of Law, University of Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
2 Department of Law, College of Law, University of Kermian, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Abstract
Punishment is imposed on the offender for committing an act criminalized by the retribution law. When imposing it, the competent court must abide by a number of legal principles adopted in this regard, namely the principle of legality of the penalty, the personality of the punishment, the jurisprudence of punishment, and equality in punishment. But as an exception to these principles, the penalty can be determined in the Penal Code based on other criteria that it specifies in its texts, and among these criteria are what is related to the offender’s personality, such as the offender’s age, natures, mental or living condition and his past, including what is related to his subsequent behavior to committing the crime, such as informing him about his commission of the crime, confession, positive repentance, and insistence on committing the crime.
The punishment of the offender is also affected by a number of characteristics determined by the Penal Code which he has during the commission of the crime such as his legal position, his profession, his kinship with the victim, or others. These qualities can sometimes play an influential role in toughening or mitigating his sentence.
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