On Instigator

As the most controversial and noted issue in the criminal law theories, abettor theory, which refers to how to determine and penalize an abettor in practice, has been a difficulty often encountered in the criminal judicial practice. In the judicial practice of China, the inattentive statutory stipulation and the different views of abettor theory by judges and procurator likely leads to divergent verdicts, even a difference between life and death. Therefore, how to determine and penalize an abettor has been an important but practical issue which the judicial authorities and the academia are facing and can not withdraw from. Roughly discussing and analyzing the constitutive elements, criminal pattern, quantity of crime and penalty regarding abettor, this paper holds that it is a must to improve the legislation and specify the stipulations of abettor.