The Underlying Principles of Punishment in Crimes Against Security

Maintaining security is one of the important goals of all political systems in the world. Actions that undermine the security of society and, more broadly, the security of the government are criminalized in all legal systems. Although all crimes harm security in some way, crimes against security are directly related to concepts such as national security and public welfare. In Iran, a limited number of these crimes are mentioned in the section hudud[1], and most of the cases are mentioned in the section ta’zirat[2] in the first chapter of the Islamic Penal Code. The present study aims at finding the answer to the questions that what the principles of punishment in these crimes are, and which of these principles are used in the field of crimes against security. In this regard, four models of ‘severity and certainty’, ‘severity and uncertainty’, ‘leniency [lack of severity] and certainty’, and ‘leniency and uncertainty’ are proposed by law theorists, each of which is discussed and explained.