Critique and Evaluation of Personal, Social and Judicial Harms of Criminalization in the Iranian Penal System

Criminalization is one of the important tools and mechanisms of the criminal policy of any country in the fight against crime. Criminalization is a very delicate and precise act in society, which if not done based on a reasonable policy, not only will not achieve the desired result but will also impose huge costs on society. Creating behavioral restrictions through the process of criminalization is contrary to the principles of freedom and permission and authorization; therefore only in important and necessary cases it is required, and when criminalizing a behavior will become necessary that such behavior represents a serious social threat that actually or potentially is detrimental to others and can no longer be dealt with by other social or legal means. If the quality and manner of the criminalization process and the creation of prohibitions are not subject to a reasonable policy, it can itself become an important factor in the development and increase of delinquency and the escape of criminals from punishment. The results of this study indicate that in the Iranian penal system, the most important personal, social and judicial harms of criminalization include impunity for criminals, the institutionalization of revenge and violence in society, declining ugliness of crime and increasing insecurity in society, violation of the constitution, violation of human dignity, criminalization of the penal system, forgetting the role of non-judicial institutions, increasing the costs of criminal proceedings, and so on. The type of the present study is applied in terms of its objectives, and in terms of nature, it is using descriptive-analytical method benefiting from library and documentary sources.