The Offence of Acid Attack in the Context of New Legal Developments, With Special Reference to the Iranian “law on The Aggravation of Punishment of Acid Attack and Support of its Victims”, 2019

Abstract

Acid attack, as an anti-social behaviour, is a serious crime with severe punishment under legal systems.The severe damage caused to the public order, and the harm caused to the victims necessitates severe punishment imposed on the the perpetrator and supportive measures provided for the victim.This paper examines the measures taken by the newly enacted law in attempt to prevent the commission of this heinous crime and to support victims.By adopting a descriptive and analytical method, this paper considers the legislative background of this crime, and examines its constituent elements under the new law.It examines the effect of aggravation of punishment, prohibition of applying leniency institutions, aggravation of abettor's punishment and adoption of preventive measures in reducing the occurrence of this crime. The paper emphasizes the need to provide physical and psychological support to the victims, which was not provided in previous legislation.The conclusion is that, in spite of the positive steps taken in the newly enacted law, in the sense of increasing the punishment, and providing supportive measures , further measures are still needed to ensure the prevention, and especially situational prevention of this crime such as identification of acid buyers and registration of such transactions

Keywords

• acid attack
• aggravation of punishment
• support
• victim
• situational prevention