Pozycja pokrzywdzonego na tle przepisów materialnego prawa wykroczeń

Abstract

The aim of this work is to establish to what extent discrepancies of substantive misdemeanour law (relating to criminal law), which stem from simplification of responsibility rules, impact the position of victim. There are no general rules and principles relating to formation of the position of victim in either criminal law or misdemeanour law. Only by analysing particular regulations of the both respective codes allows one to reconstruct the status of victim and confronting it on the plain of the two responsibility regimes in question. The said confrontation reveals far-reaching differences within the scope of victim’s position in substantive regulations of misdemeanour law, some of which weaken the victim’s position, while other – strengthen it. Although those differences vary to their weight, yet it seems that regulations restricting the presence of the figure of victim are more significant – they genuinely decrease the competence of a person to whom the harm was made. Amongst the said regulations, first and foremost, have to be counted those that relate to possibility of ruling compensatory penal measures, as well as regulations defining the periods of limitation (aside from other discussed regulations). The assumed dual model of responsibility within this scope, in some cases, compromises the principle of equality before the law enshrined in Article 32 paragraph 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.