Complainant Victims in Detrimental Crimes to Public Morality

The situation of Iran’s legal system is ambiguous and controversial about who can be prosecuted for detrimental crimes to public morality (crimes against morality) and in other words, who are considered victims in such crimes. However, a victim is a person who has suffered losses directly and conventionally (customarily), and the person who is in the opposite side of the act against public morality and chastity is the direct victim of the crime in detrimental crimes to public morality. Therefore, the complaints of other persons, except those which the legislator has added them to the complainant, are not allowed to initiate prosecutions. Furthermore, the opposite party of detrimental acts to public morality (with incompatible with chastity, crimes against morality) is not guilty in all cases, and the victim is not considered to be the one who suffers the loss, if the he/she has real consent to the commitment of a crime, but if consent is made by threats, deception and so on, and in a way that the person is conventionally considered to be the victim of loss and damage, even if the person has a criminal intent (mens rea), the plaintiff's sentences will be imposed on him/her and his/her complaint can be processed. The present article is going to answer this basic question in two general topics: Which person or persons are considered victims in detrimental crimes to public morality (crimes against morality), and as a result, their complaint can lead to the initiation and continuation of criminal proceedings.