In it criminal law, the so-called aggravating circumstances come to be random situations in a crime that may or may not be concurrent with the respective criminal act, which would increase the penalty. The existence of a crime does not depend on its appearance, but only of its severity.
That is why here we are going to tell you everything you will need. know about aggravating circumstances in criminal law. So you know exactly what it means and everything related to this topic.
So stay until the end of this article and learn a little more about criminal law.
What are the possible aggravating factors?
Possible aggravating circumstances are:
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- Of a personal nature, linked to the conduct of the offender, his particular relationships with the offended party or any other reason with any other person.
- Be objective, including the material to perform the act or the means used to perform the act.
The assessment of the seriousness of a crime in determining sentencing varies considerably from one legal system to another. In some countries, such as Spain, It falls within a category of situations to be evaluated, to avoid the arbitrariness of the courts.
On the other hand, in other systems there are no categories of facts to evaluate, or they exist specifically for criminal groups.
Aggravating situations are resources circumstantial and not fundamental, therefore, they affect the modification of criminal responsibility. Criminal responsibility is measured in its consequences, which is the penalty.
What their situations do is change the degree, the severity of the penalty, this leads us to the need to describe what the decision model is like and the respective evaluation of the sentence as dictated by the Spanish system. We can mention that in the Penal Code (CP) Spanish there are fundamentally 3 successive levels to reach the individualization of the sentence.
What are the circumstances that could be called aggravating circumstances in criminal law?
The first level begins with an abstract legal sanction, which we could call a typical sanction. Furthermore, this is necessarily the case due to the requirements of the legal principle. This requires that the law establish the penalties applicable to crimes.
The second level would be a specific legal sanction, that is, a sanction of the type applicable in the particular case to the act and the author or authors. This means that based on legal criteria, we will specify this criminal framework according to reality, the level of conduct (itercriminis) and the degree of responsibility of the author(s).
As well as why then, according to the criteria of paternity and participation, Apply this and those mentioned to most crimes.
The third level is personal judicial punishment, this allows a deeper evaluation of that particular legal sanction on a modified basis. That is, on the agreement or disagreement of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
In general, from the abstract criminal framework, When these rules are applied, we can get out of this abstract penal framework. In fact almost always, because if, for example, he heist It becomes an abstract crime.
Framework of 1 year to 3 years in prison, the application of these norms, of the itcriminis, of copyright and participation rights will distance us from this framework. If the perpetrator attempted to commit a crime, the punishment would be different.
On the other hand, when we apply the third criterion, we will generally move within the particular framework we have chosen.
Two important questions that we must know to face situations:
- Conformity principle: This principle designates the elements of the crime that the legislator has taken into account to distinguish the type of crime, Or what is the same. What is part of the type of crime and therefore inherent to it, cannot be evaluated at the same time as an episode, that is, as a situation.
If coincidence is a circumstance, it cannot be considered a circumstance or an element of a crime.
- Another principle is that which affects its own nature, the nature of the circumstances: the distinction between personal or subjective circumstances and material or objective circumstances. The law tells us the effects when they are estimated or when they are eliminated.