A Reflection on the Punishment of the Criminal Groups’ Actions

In criminal law of our country, the legislature has always considered in general laws and sometimes in some special laws, the necessity of severe criminal treatment of the elements of criminal groups including the organized and the unorganized ones. In this regard, Article 130 of the Islamic Penal Code (IPC), approved in 1392, intensified the punishment of the leader of organized criminal groups. Considering the legislative background of this article as well as the accuracy in special laws regarding the criminalization of the actions of the leaders of criminal groups, it seems that the legislature has sought to establish a unified legislative procedure concerning the punishment of the leaders of the organized criminal groups. However, reflection on specific laws in this area shows that the legislature has unreasonably neglected to impose penalties on the members of the organized criminal groups, as well as the leaders and members of the unorganized criminal groups. This is while creating unity of procedure in legislation should have required that the legislature in IPC adopted in 1392, in addition to determining the punishment for the leader of the organized criminal groups, should have determined the punishment for these individuals. The current study by exploring the legislative records of Article 130 of IPC adopted in 1392 and the special laws in the field of sentencing for the leaders and members of the organized and unorganized criminal groups, and by proving the need for unity of legislative procedure in this area, presents a proposal to determine separate punishments for each of the leaders and members of the organized and unorganized criminal groups.