Authorities and Duties of the Police in Confrontation with the Crimes Against Chastity as Manifested Iran’s New Regulation

It is with the perpetration of a crime that the criminal should be normally exposed to suing, trial and punishment. In most of the criminal files, the actions by the police, as the executive officers of the justice department and the substructure of the formation of the criminal files, and, on the other hand, the disciplinary force, as one of the pillars of the judicial body, play a prominent role in the formation of fair trial. It is necessary for the legislative officials to exactly elaborate the duties and authorities of the police as the justice department’s executive officers, especially, in regard of the crimes against chastity that have to be taken into account with special sensitivity and delicacy for Islam rules that these crimes should not be performed at all. Based on the regulations of the criminal trial procedures and article 28 thereof, the general duty of the police as the justice department’s executive officers that work under the teachings and supervision of the judicial authority and that of the disciplinary force in the tangible crimes or in cases that there is a private plaintiff and/or when the forcible crimes against chastity and/or organized crimes are perpetrated is only limited to the preservation of the traces and proofs of the crime and prevention of the culprit’s escape and hiding and this limitation has become more intensified and more sensitive in the intangible crimes in such a way that the disciplinary force has no right to get involved in the investigation of such crimes that are perpetrated intangibly and in hidden places and such an authority has been granted to the penal courts and within the framework of the legal regulations. Based on article 44 of the law on penal trial procedures, the justice department’s executive officers announce the crime’s occurrence upon being informed thereof to the judicial authorities and they have no right to engage in such cases and such a prohibition of intervention in regard of the crimes against chastity has been due to Islam’s policy of hiding the offenses hence justifiable in the same line. The present article uses critical analysis method to study these principles and their exceptions.