Historical and Comparative Analysis of Changes in the Albanian Penal Code. The Criminalization of Behaviours and Severity of Punishment

Abstract

Purpose:The new Albanian Penal Code has undergone 15 amendments since its adoption. This paper will discuss in chronological and comparative terms the developments of the new Albanian Penal Code of 1995, focusing on criminalization of conduct and on the toughening of punishments. The paper aims to assess the criteria used by the legislator regarding the need for changes in the Albanian Criminal Code and penal policy regarding the severity levels of the criminal sanctions.Materials and methods: In this study we refer to the text of the communist Penal Code of 1977, the new Criminal Code of 1995 and the texts of 15 laws that have changed the Penal Code over the last 19 years. For the analysis of theoretical aspects of this paper we have used a wide range of domestic and foreign literature on the research topic, as well as jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Albania. Conclusions were drawn with the use of comparisons between the Albanian Penal Code and the Criminal Codes of France, Germany, Italy and Kosovo. Conclusions:The findings of this paper are that the frequent changes to the Albanian Criminal Code have been made hastily and do not show a deep and farsighted reflection of the legislator, in order to ensure that these changes will be enduring and stand the test of time. A large part of the changes are due to reflex reactions to populist solutions of the day and thus are dominated by a strong tendency to constantly be stiffening the sentences.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n1p300