Teška krađa u starom i srednjem veku

Abstract

One can find the crime of severe theft in the ancient legal documents. They provide for the more severe punishment for the offenders of theft, if it was followed by some of the aggravating circumstances (membership of the offender or the victim to the certain class, value of the stolen item, manner and time of commitment etc.). Often the cases which are today considered as grand larceny and robbery were declared as severe theft, or the severe theft was identified with embezzlement or attendance. This was due to the fact that ancient legal documents did not make a clear distinction between these crimes, as they do today. In the oldest states of the Ancient Near East and their legal documents (Code of Hammurabi) there was a difference between the ordinary theft and severe theft followed by the aggravating circumstances in treating aggravating and mitigating circumstances. The later legal documents, each on its own way, regulate different situations which give an aggravating note to the theft. The severe theft was present in the oldest legal documents in Serbia, such as Dusan's Code, all the way long to the Criminal Code of the Principality of Serbia, and current Criminal Code. This paper will shortly present some legal documents which contain provisions on the severe theft. The expose will correspond to the periodization of the history to the ancient, medieval and new century. The special attention will be given to the legal documents of the medieval Serbia, in which we may find the roots of the legal regulation of the severe theft.