Problematyka przestępstw o marginalnym znaczeniu praktycznym na przykładzie przestępstwa dzieciobójstwa
The problem of crimes of marginal practical importance on the example of the crime of infanticide

Summary/Abstract: The crime codified in Article 149 of the Criminal Code is a crime of marginal practical significance – in the last dozen or so years, the number of infanticides has been a percentage of one per cent of the number of crimes recorded in Poland. At the same time, cases of infanticide usually receive wide public attention. In Polish law, infanticide is a privileged type of homicide due to the psychological experience of the woman caused by the process of childbirth. Among the legal doctrine and in the public discourse – in view of the growing awareness of the society concerning procreation, the widespread access to family planning methods and the minimalization of the condemnation of extra-marital pregnancies – there are numerous voices about the lack of legitimacy of maintaining infanticide in the legal system. It should be pointed out in this context that individual legislations treat the crime of infanticide differently. Some of them do not separate this act as a delictum sui generis, other states provide for qualified or privileged responsibility for killing a child, with the difference that the prerequisites for mitigating criminal responsibility are different. The subject of this paper is the problem of crimes of marginal practical significance, using the crime of infanticide as an example. The aim of the research is to prove that the normative content of the crime of infanticide does not correspond to its criminological content. In the paper, the elements of the crime of infanticide have been analyzed and statistical data illustrating the scale of the phenomenon have been quoted. Then, a comparison of the Polish regulation with selected foreign norms was made. The most important conclusions drawn from the work are that the provision of Article 149 of the Criminal Code does not include in its disposition all the factors which in fact lead to the murder of newborns, which raises questions about the validity of the regulation in the face of contemporary needs and constitutes a contribution to the formulation of de lege ferenda postulates.

• Details
• Contents