The Concept of Offence and the Classification of Offences in Polish Criminal Law

Abstract

The binding Polish Criminal Code from 1997 contains no definition of offence. It can, however,
be constructed on the basis of the provisions of art. 1, 2, 7 and 9 of the code. It sounds: 1) an
offence is constituted by an act (action or omission) of a man, forbidden under the threat of penalty
by a statute, which is a felony or a misdemeanour, culpable intentionally or unintentionally and
socially harmful in a degree higher than minimal; 2) special role in the definition is played by the
concept of an act as the basis of criminal responsibility.
The most important classifications of offences in Polish criminal law are made on the basis of
the following criteria: a) the seriousness of the offence (division into felonies and misdemeanours);
b) the presence of the element of consequence in the statutory description of the offence (material
and formal offences); c) the damage or the danger of it (offences causing damage in a legally
protected value, offences consisting in concrete endangering and offences of abstract endangering);
d) type of the offender’s behaviour (action and omission offences); e) form of guilt (intentional and
unintentional offences); f) mode of prosecution (offences prosecuted on public indictment, including
offences prosecuted on the motion of the victim, offences prosecuted on private indictment);
g) features of the offender (delicta communia and delicta propria).