Investigating the Place of Recidivism in the Islamic Penal Code Adopted in 2013

Recidivism means criminal behavior of someone who convicted by a criminal court based on a definitive sentence however later he commits another crime. A difference between the plurality of crimes and recidivism is the history of a criminal conviction, which is an important prerequisite for recidivism to occur. The conditions for the recidivism in the former Islamic Penal Code was first, the finality of the previous conviction, meaning the authority of criminal res judicata and must be enforceable; second, the previous conviction must be either punitive or deterrent (discretionary punishment awarded by the judge). Therefore, the prior conviction to non-punitive or non-deterrent punishments (namely punishment exactly defined by Sharia which may neither be reduced or augmented known as “Had” and talion) so the rules applying to non-punitive punishments had to be consulted through Islamic texts. Furthermore, it was deducible from the text of article 48 of the previous penal code that the prior punishment had to be performed, although, there was seemingly a difference between execution and completion of a criminal conviction. Without any doubt, if for some reasons such as exempting excuses, the punishment might not be enforced, the finality of conviction was not sufficient solely but if after enforcement of conviction or during its enforcement, the perpetrator committed a new crime, the rule of recidivism applied to him e.g. crimes committed by prisoners during the prison time. Regarding the second element of recidivism, that is, repeated conviction, the prerequisite of previous code for second offense was nothing but being of punitive or deterrent nature. According to the new penal code, the provision applying to recidivism undergoes important changes. Therefore, regarding the importance of such changes, the present paper reviews the approach of new penal code toward recidivism or reaped crimes.