The Role of Ethical Principles in Determining Punishment in Criminal Law

Determining punishment and adopting criminal laws are applied in different ways and approaches. Given the importance of the role of ethics in socialist and humanistic criminal law, the present study seeks to investigate the role of ethical principles in determining punishment.

The present research is descriptive-analytical and the method of data analysis is argumentative. Data collection was done in a library method using legal sources.

 In this article, the ethical aspects of the research have been observed while introducing the resources used along with scientific fidelity.

Ethical principles based on attention to removing of imprisonment approaches, rehabilitation and correction of offenders, alternative methods of punishment as well as defense of preventive and training methods, provides significant assistance to offenders, families, and individuals who interact with criminals and delinquents in various ways. The Islamic Penal Code also provides an ethical approach based on removing of imprisonment and assistance to criminals and delinquents in unintentional crimes.

Moving away from traditional justice approach and moving towards humane and ethical models, along with assisting unintentional criminals and minor crimes, promoting new alternatives to punishment, as well as paying attention to public participation in organizing judicial affairs, are manifestations of ethical intervention in determining punishment and criminal law, which need more attention.