Study On The Victim Fault In Intentional Homicide Cases

Victimology is a developing subject formed in the1940s. It focuses on the protection of victim and also brought up the conception of victim’s fault and victim’s responsibility. The victim’s fault is a discretionary circumstances of sentencing. Although the law can regulate the cases in which the victims have fault, the judicial authority seldom mitigate or reduce the punishment of the accused person. The reasons are varied. In the theory study, the research on victim’s fault is not very deep, most of them stay in the stage of conception and macro-analysis. As the victim’s fault is a circumstance of sentencing, the study on the victim’s fault should focus more on micro-analysis, regards to exert guiding function of theory study to judicial practice. Such as how to deal with the particular cases when victims have fault, how should the victim’s fault affect the extent of sentencing and so on. The victim’s fault is most obvious in the case of intentional homicide, the consideration of the victim’s fault or not could affect the application of death penalty. So the study on the victim’s fault in the case of intentional homicide is more meaningful in the practice. So the paper mean to offer some useful information for judicial practice by studying on the victim’s fault in the cases of intention homicide.The study mainly researches the decision on the victim’s fault in the cases of intentional homicide. The paper begins with the interaction theory of crime, then draws the theory of victim’s fault and explains the great significance of victim’s fault in the intentional homicide cases and lays bases for the meaning of this paper. The study explains briefly the theory of the victim’s fault, such as the conception of the victim’s fault and the theory ground to reduce the criminal responsibility of the accused person. The study also introduced the related regulations in other countries on victim’s fault in intentional cases. The general theory and law which regulate the similar situation in other countries have instructive meaning for us when mitigating the criminal responsibility in the intentional homicide cases.In addition, the meaning of victim’s fault in intentional homicide cases is very great to "Crime of passion". Thus this paper have independent chapter for Passion Homicide, analyzes the external form of the victim’s fault and extent it affecting the accused person’s criminal responsibility, in the aspects of the subject、the fault type and circumstance. At the same time, it also discusses some particular intentional homicide exist in the practice, such as punishment on relative, euthanasia, assisted suicide, the situation seeing someone in mortal danger without lifting a finger to save, we take it as some form of victim’s fault and conclude that in these type of cases, the reason why the accused person can get mitigated punishment is that the victim has certain fault. This can make a complete system for the theory of victim’s fault in intentional homicide cases. At last, this paper elaborated the affect of public opinion on the victim’s fault and concludes that there are certain relation between the public opinion and the decision on the victim’s fault. We should take right view between public opinion and judicial independence,this is important regards to whether we could apply the victim’s fault correctly. This paper focuses on micro-analysis, emphasizes on providing theory instructions for judicial practice.