Limitation of Death Penalty for Drug Offenses in Iran’s Penal Policy from the Perspective of Criminal Sociology

The legislator has adopted a policy of repression and aggravation of punishment in drug offenses. Undoubtedly, the legislator has adopted such measures due to the obscenity and severity of these crimes, as well as their danger to society. However, it seems that this penal policy is not useful for many reasons and does not move the legislator toward its goal (prevention of crime, recidivism, and reform of the offenders); It is probably due to the fact that imposing heavy punishments is reasonable and correct regardless of the causes and factors of the crime, as well as the circumstances in which the person committed the crime. The thing that prevents offenders and people from committing or repeating offenses is the speed and precision of executing the punishment, not the heavy ones. Hence, with regard to the shortcomings of this policy and the weakness of the deterrent theory against social, economic, cultural, and political crime factors at some periods of time, and in particular recently, the legislator has tried to moderate its penal policy. In 2017, an article was added to the Counter-Drug Law to undergo a fundamental change, including the significant reduction in cases of execution and life imprisonment. The moderation of penal policy against drug and psychotropic crimes plays a major role in the elimination of death sentences from the Iranian criminal justice system and promotes human rights status of Iran in the international community. This moderation is originated from the post-revolutionary criminal sociological study as well as internal and external criticisms of strict penal policy; internal criticism was from jurisprudential, legal, human rights, criminology, and criminal sociology circles.