Rape with Particular Cruelty (art. 197 § 4 of Polish Penal Code)

Abstract

“Particular cruelty” is a feature that constructs qualified (with severer punishment) type of rape. There has been established quite a good general line of interpreting “particular cruelty”, although in specific cases it is not applied in a proper way. There is a tendency to use general leads of The Highest Court in a automatic and objective way, without relating them into the circumstances of the case; especially without taking under one’s consideration some specifics of the victim. The empirical research was made on 29 files of cases that had been finished in 2006‒2012, with the act classified as fulfilled the article 197 § 4 of Polish Criminal Code.