Understanding Crimes Against Persons: Legal Consequences
Crimes Against Persons
1 – Murder
The crime of murder is to take the life of a person with will or intention. It may also be the result of gross negligence (e.g., an outrage, medical malpractice, etc.).
The Penalty
The crime of murder is punishable by imprisonment for 10 to 15 years.
If the crime is committed by negligence (by an oversight, and without intending to do so), the penalty of imprisonment shall be from 1 to 4 years. Whether that negligence was committed using a motor vehicle, moped, or a weapon, the penalty of deprivation of appropriate administrative leave (permission to drive or gun license) shall be from 1 to 6 years.
If the killing is the result of professional negligence, the offender shall be punished, in addition to the penalty of disqualification for the exercise of the profession, office, or position, for a period of 3 to 6 years.
2 – Assassination
Murder involves removing a person’s life in one of the following circumstances:
- With malice aforethought: The author uses means that try to ensure, first, the commission of the crime, and secondly, to prevent harm to the victim trying to defend themselves.
- For a price or reward, or the promise of receiving it: In these cases, those responsible for the crime of murder are the one who pays the price as well as the one directly committing the action.
- With cruelty, deliberately increasing the pain of the victim.
The Penalty
The crime of murder carries a sentence of imprisonment of 15 to 20 years.
If the offense involved more than one of the above, the maximum term of imprisonment may be increased from 20 to 25 years.
3 – Inducement to Suicide
Whoever directly incites a person to commit suicide commits a crime. Induction to suicide occurs independent of actual death or suicide.
The Penalty
The crime of inducement to suicide is punishable with imprisonment from 4 to 8 years.
Cooperation in Suicide
This is a modifying circumstance of criminal liability arising from the commission of the crime of suicide induction and is to cooperate or assist in performing acts necessary for a person to commit suicide.
The penalty that may be imposed in these cases is imprisonment from 2 to 5 years.
If cooperation is at the point of causing the death of the person, the offense shall be punished with imprisonment from 6 to 10 years.
4 – Euthanasia
Those who cause death or cooperate actively so that people with a serious illness that will necessarily result in death or suffering hard to bear, and seeking expressly and unequivocally that an end or collaborate with them to end their life, commit a crime of euthanasia.
If it causes death, the penalty imposed is the same as that indicated in cases of cooperation in suicide (imprisonment of 2 to 5 years) reduced by one or two degrees, depending on the circumstances in which the offense develops.
5 – Abortion
Abortion is a crime of causing the death of a fetus intentionally, except in cases authorized by law.
These legal cases are:
- The cases of serious danger to life or physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.
- If pregnancy is a result of rape (if the offense had been reported and the abortion is performed within the first 12 weeks of gestation).
- When it is assumed that the fetus will be born with serious physical or mental defects.
In all cases, it is necessary to have medical reports attesting to the circumstances, the consent of the pregnant woman, and that the practice of abortion is performed by a physician in accredited public or private centers.
The Penalty
The penalty for the crime of abortion will depend on the circumstances under which it is committed:
- If the abortion is performed without her consent: The person responsible may be punished with imprisonment from 4 to 8 years and disqualification to hold any health profession, or to provide any kind in clinics, or gynecological, whether public or private, for a period of 3 to 10 years.
The same penalties will be imposed on those who obtained the consent of women through violence, threat, or deception.
- If abortion is made with the consent of the woman, outside the cases provided by law, it is punishable by imprisonment of 1 to 3 years and disqualification to hold any health profession, or to provide services of any kind in clinics, establishments, or gynecological, whether public or private, from 1 to 6 years.
In this case, women will also be punished with imprisonment from 6 months to 1 year or a fine of 6 to 24 months.
- If negligence causes an abortion, the offender shall be punished with arrest from 12 to 24 weekends.
If the abortion was committed due to professional negligence, the penalty is, in addition to disqualification for the exercise of the profession, office, or position, for a period of 1 to 3 years.
6 – Injuries and Ill-Treatment
A person who causes injury to another injury that affects their physical integrity or physical or mental health, provided that the injury required to cure medical or surgical treatment, commits a crime.
Medical monitoring of the injury or the monitoring of its evolution is not considered “medical or surgical treatment”. In turn, this treatment may be assisted by a psychiatrist, an orthopedic, etc.
The offense of injury is public, so it can be prosecuted ex officio by the authorities, although the victim does not wish to make a complaint.
Consequently, the police may initiate appropriate legal action against the offender even though the injury does not intend to complain.
Following the filing of appropriate criminal proceedings, the victim may seek redress or compensation for damages, regardless of whether or not they have made the appropriate grievance or complaint.
The injured person shall be entitled, in the latter case, although not part of the proceedings, to be informed by the court of the date of the trial and sentence to end it.
The compensation is determined in the court of law, and in principle, it will be paid by the offender.
In cases where children are injured or disabled, injuries are under-reported by trade, so that the public prosecutor may institute the appropriate action to safeguard the legal guarantees of the minor or incompetent.
The Sorrow and the Various Assumptions
As a general rule, the crime of injury is punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years, although the graduation of the same should be taken into account the various circumstances surrounding the offense, being able to distinguish different cases:
- If the injuries are minor: When the injuries are less serious, depending on the medium used or the result produced, the offense may be punished with arrest from 7 to 24 weekends or a fine of 3 to 12 months.
- If injuries occur with weapons or dangerous instruments: In the event that the injuries are caused with weapons, instruments, objects, or dangerous ways, cruelty, or if the victim is under 12 years, the offense may be sentenced to prison from 2 to 5 years.
- If the injuries caused to the victim’s loss or worthlessness of an organ or principal member or a sense, impotence, infertility, severe deformity, the offense may be punished with imprisonment from 6 to 12 years.
If the organ or limb was no leader, or the deformity is not severe, the punishment shall be imprisonment from 3 to 6 years.
- For its part, the person who caused, or propose to conspire to commit any other crimes of injury mentioned above, may be punished with less than one or two degrees to bring the penalty in each case.
- If any of the previous injuries were caused by negligence, the penalties range from the arrest of 7 to 24 weekends and imprisonment of up to 3 years, depending on the severity of the injury and the circumstances in which they cause.
If the head injury is caused by negligence in the exercise of their profession, they will also impose the penalty of disqualification for the exercise of their profession, office, or position for a period of 1 to 4 years.
- If the damages are committed using a motor vehicle, moped, or firearm, the penalty shall be, in addition to deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles and mopeds, or possess or carry arms, from 1 to 3 years.
- If the injuries are caused with the consent of the injury, the penalty is smaller by one or two degrees as appropriate.
For this purpose, no valid consent is obtained in exchange for a reward, or that provided by a minor or incompetent.
Injuries and Abuse Within the Family
In these cases, it is necessary to distinguish the crime of causing injury.
Criminal Injuries
If the abuse is caused within the family, there is a penalty added to that indicated for specific injuries, as offenses that occur in each case: the imprisonment of 6 months to 3 years.
This penalty applies to those exercising physical violence on a regular basis about who is or was your spouse or the person who is or has been linked to him as a stable partner, or own children or spouse or cohabiting pupils, parents or unable to live with it, or who are subject to parental authority, custody, guardianship, foster care, or custody of either fact.
To determine if physical violence is exercised on a regular basis, one should take into account the number of acts of violence and frequency, regardless of whether there are more victims and that violent acts have been prosecuted in previous cases.
If you are a victim of abuse, please go to the police (municipal, national, or district), the Civil Guard, or to the relevant court and make the corresponding complaint.
There are police care specializing in child abuse and sexual assault, which helps the victim to report the incident and was seeking medical and psychological assistance and even protection where necessary.
The crime of abuse is a public standard, so it is prosecuted ex officio without the victim making the complaint, but given the restricted area where they occur, it requires the cooperation of the victim, people living in the household, or neighbors and friends who have witnessed abuse.
Within the family of the perpetrator’s criminal liability is not extinguished with the forgiveness of the injured.
A lawyer can also offer advice on all these issues in view of the peculiarities of each specific case.
The Lack of Injuries
The difference between crime and lack of injury depends on whether the damage caused to the victim needs or not to cure, medical treatment. So, if damage does not need this medical treatment, it shall constitute a foul, even though initial medical care has been made.
It should be pointed out that the medical monitoring or surveillance of simple injuries is not considered medical treatment.
The lack of injuries is punishable with penalties of imprisonment of 3 to 6 weekends or a fine of 1 to 2 months, always evaluating the potential impact that the sentence may have on the victim or the entire family unit.
Finally, the action of hitting or abusing a person without causing actual injury is punishable by arrest of 1 to 3 weekends or a fine of 1 to 30 days.
They are also punishable by the lack of threats and coercion, insults, or harassment of a minor nature committed within the family and can be punished with arrest from 2 to 4 weekends or a fine of 10 to 20 days.
These faults, like crime, are public, so they can be prosecuted by the authorities without the victim making the corresponding claim, except in cases of libel in which it will be essential.
7 – Genocide
The crime of genocide involves performing a series of acts with the aim of removing all or part of a social group based on race, religion, or politics.
Acts against the group previously referred to are the following:
- Taking life to its members, the penalty is imprisonment carries 15 to 20 years.
- Sexually assaulting one of the members, causing the loss or disability of a principal organ or limb, or a sense of impotence, infertility, severe deformity, or severe somatic or mental illness, the penalty shall be imprisonment from 6 to 12 years.
- Submitting the group or any of its individuals to conditions that endanger life or serious disturbances to health, as well as causing the loss or disability of a principal organ or member, or deformity, this crime will be punished with imprisonment from 8 to 15 years. If you cause injury other than the above, the penalty imposed is life imprisonment from 4 to 8 years.
- Moving the whole group or one of its members, forcibly, or moving individuals from one group to another, any measure that restricts your lifestyle or play, the offense is punished with imprisonment from 8 to 15 years.
- It also criminalizes the action of transmitting ideas or doctrines that deny or justify the crimes outlined above or regimes or institutions seeking to recover the practice of justifying them. In these cases, the penalty shall be imprisonment of 1 to 2 years.