Influences On Criminal Responsibility By Victim's Fault

Affected by the traditional duality structure of criminal law, China's current criminal punishment system always punishes criminals only based on the roles of criminals during the course of their committing crimes. However, what is often ignored during such course is victims who are generally deemed to be innocent could possibly be a fuse or a direct cause of crimes. We can not find provisions in the PRC Criminal Law specifically setting forth the fault of victims because it is merely a consideration factor in sentencing of criminals. Although victim's fault is indicated more or less in the provision of legitimate defense, the judicial practices do not attach importance to it.Thus in this thesis, the writer learns these theories and puts forward that crimes are the interactive results by and between victimizing acts and doing harm, and that victims play a very critical role in the commitment and control of some crimes. It is not wise and scientific to totally disregard the factor of victims in study of criminal theories on an indiscriminative basis, and what's more it is against the value of fairness and justice to sentence criminals without consideration of the fault of victims.Focusing on the subject matter of the influences on criminal responsibility by victim's fault, the thesis firstly analyzes the concept of criminal's fault in the field of criminal law, differs it from the concept of criminal's fault in the field of criminology, and draws a conclusion that the concept of criminal's fault in the field of criminal law should only incorporates those involving harms to society and body. The writer further classifies the criminal's fault in the field of criminal law into two categories, obvious fault and criminal fault, each of which has different influences upon the responsibility of actors. The writer argues that victim's fault finally affects the result of sentence mainly through its effect on the basis and extent of criminal responsibility.At last, in light of the analysis of the theory of influence on criminal responsibility by criminal's fault and practical basis, together with the awkward situation of criminal's fault in the system of criminal sentence, the writer proposes to legislate the consideration factor of criminal's fault for purpose of better using the consideration factor to mitigate criminal punishment in the course of sentence and for more just application of criminal punishment.