Comparative Study of the Principle of Individualization of Punishments in Islamic Criminal Jurisprudence and Iranian Law

The principle of individualizing, is something new in criminal law in western countries, but has a long history in Islam. This principle is the result of paying attention to the character of criminals in the beginning of 19th century. According to this principle, punishment should coincide with the criminal’s character and the conditions of the crime. Islam had this principle embedded from the beginning, and provided measure to bring into account criminal’s character. This principle, from the beginning of legislation (After the Islamic Revolution), has not been fully executed, but in the new law, the legislator has taken this into account. The goal of this article is to describe this principle according to the Islamic Jurisprudence principles that are accepted and passed in the 1392 Islamic criminal code and to analyze it to show the advantages, innovations, and disadvantages to make corrections to it in the future.