Criminal Liability for another Person's Actions

Since the eighteenth century, we have witnessed the presentation of the constructive views of the legal scholars on the principles governing the crimes and punishments and the criminal liability of offenders. Scientists such as Cesare Beccaria have criticized existing legal institutions and denounced the ruling criminal system of that age, to the extent that by publishing their works, they have made a huge transformation in the legal system of European law at those days. This period coincided with the beginning of the era of technology and the emergence of the machinism phenomenon, which itself expanded the range of crimes, especially unintentional crimes, so that the security of the people was greatly endangered. A look at the statistics of the crimes and losses that come to the manufactories, hospitals and factories shows what today's powerful human being faces. This is a topic to be considered carefully, and one should prevent the occurrence of accidents and damages that are mainly due to the machinism phenomenon by introducing special regulations and fore-sighting the necessary enforcement guarantees. One of these enforcement guarantees is the principle of “criminal liability for another person's actions“. In the other words, is it possible to hold the person who is allegedly not involved in the commission of a crime (not as a steward or as a partner) for the criminal act committed by another person? According to the principle that has existed for a long time and has been endorsed by various religions (that is, the principle of the personal character of the responsibilities and punishments), everyone is responsible for his/her own actions, and no one can be punished due to the acts of other persons. But today, this general principle has an exception: the criminal liability for another person's actions. In means that in some cases, a person who has been involved in committing a criminal act can be punished instead of the offender for some reasons.