Objective Aspects of the Crime of Intentionally Causing Injury or Harm to the Health of Another Person

health protection, so there is no possibility of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of another person; or in cases where a person causes injury to themselves for some other reason, they are not subject to the regulation of Article 134 of the 2015 Penal Code, amended in 2017.

1.1.2.2 Objective aspects of the crime of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of another person

Objective of the crime of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of another person: The act of intentionally causing injury is similar to the act of murder. The offender acts on the victim's body to cause injury or harm to the victim's health: stabbing, slashing, punching, kicking, burning, poisoning, etc.

* About behavior.

Intentional acts of causing injury or harm to the health of others also have different levels of danger to society. For example: there are acts of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of others with circumstances that significantly reduce the level of danger to society, intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of others in a state of strong mental agitation, etc.

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- For the crime of intentionally causing injury. It is shown through the act of using force (without using a weapon or using a weapon) or using other means to impact another person's body causing injury to them (broken leg, perforated intestine,...). In general, the injuries can be seen to be leaking.

The use of force can be only physical strength (kicking, punching) or with the use of weapons (such as knives, hammers, sticks...) directly affecting the victim's body.

Using other (indirect) means can be pushing and shoving the victim to fall, hitting a hard object leading to injury or forcing the victim to self-harm.

Harm includes physical harm and damage to the nervous system (mental health).

The subject of this crime is a person who is at fault in intentionally committing the act of assaulting or causing harm to the health of another person, has criminal responsibility and is of the age of criminal responsibility according to the law. As stated above in Section 1.1.1 of this article, according to Article 12 of the 2015 Penal Code, except for crimes that this Code provides otherwise.

* Other signs.

Clause 1, Article 134 of the 2015 Penal Code stipulates that the crime of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of another person with a bodily injury rate of 11% to 30% or less than 11% but falling into one of the cases specified in this clause, shall be punished with non-custodial reform for up to 03 years or imprisonment from 06 months to 03 years. Specifically:

- Using dangerous weapons or means that cause harm to 2 or more people: Subsection 3.1 Section 3 of Resolution No. 01/2006/NQ-HDTP guides: “Using dangerous weapons is the case of using weapons or dangerous means according to the instructions in subsections 2.1 and 2.2 Section 2 Part I of Resolution No. 02/2003/NQ-HDTP dated April 17, 2003 of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court to intentionally cause injury or damage to the health of others”. Therefore, dangerous weapons and dangerous means (hammers, machetes, sharp knives); and means that cause harm to many people can be mentioned as using petrol bombs... then dangerous weapons include: hammers, machetes, sharp knives...; Regarding the objects that the offender makes: sharpened iron bars, wooden sticks...; About naturally available materials: bricks, stones, hard, strong sticks, iron bars.

- Using sulfuric acid (H2SO4) or other dangerous chemicals to cause injury or harm to the health of others: Dangerous chemicals are defined in Clause 5, Article 3 of Circular 04/2012/TT-BCT.

Chemical classification and labeling regulations issued by the Minister of Industry and Trade, including properties such as explosiveness, strong corrosion, strong oxidation...

Sanctions for intentional injury

- Causing minor disabilities to the victim: Clause 1, Section I of Resolution 02/2003/NQ-HDTP stipulates that minor disabilities are abnormal, incurable conditions for a part of the victim's body, even if the disability rate is less than 11%.

- Committing a crime 2 times or more: Committing a crime multiple times, showing the nature and seriousness of the crime.

- Committing a crime against 2 or more people: Committing a crime against many people, showing the danger of the tools and methods used by the subject to commit the act, which can impact and cause injury and damage to the health of many people.

- For people under 16 years old, women who are known to be pregnant, the elderly, sick or others who are unable to defend themselves: Here we need to pay attention to the case of pregnant women. Only when the criminal knows and has sufficient grounds to know that this woman is pregnant and still commits the crime, then this is the case.

- For grandparents, parents, foster parents, teachers: Those who have a blood relationship or who have raised and educated the person who committed the act. This provision promotes moral values in society before committing a crime.

- Organized crime: Is a case where 2 or more people discuss and collude to commit an act together (complicity).

- Abuse of position and power: Is an act of intentionally causing injury by people with positions and powers but not related to that person's official duties.

- Committing a crime while being detained, imprisoned, serving a prison sentence or being subject to compulsory education, reformatory school or compulsory drug rehabilitation measures: These are the subjects

controlled subjects who are serving criminal or administrative sentences and who must have the highest respect for the law.

- Hiring someone to cause injury or damage to health or causing injury or damage to health due to being hired: The hirer and the hired person to cause injury to another person are both considered more serious than normal cases of causing injury, so if the victim only suffers injury or damage to health of less than 11%, the offender will be prosecuted for criminal liability according to Clause 1, Article 134 of the 2015 Penal Code, amended and supplemented in 2017.

- Having a hooligan nature: According to Official Dispatch No. 38/NCPL dated January 6, 1976 of the Supreme People's Court and the Conclusion of the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court at the 1995 Judicial Review Conference, the concept of hooliganism is understood as the actions of those who disregard the law, always disrupt public order, are ready to use force and like (or like) to use force to intimidate others into submitting to them, for no reason or just for a trivial reason, stabbing, slashing, or even killing people.

The framing circumstance of “Has a hooligan nature” in the crime of “Intentionally causing injury” at point i, clause 1, Article 134, Penal Code (CP) stipulates: Anyone who intentionally causes injury or harms the health of another person with a bodily injury rate of less than 11% with a hooligan nature shall be subject to non-custodial reform for up to 03 years or imprisonment from 06 months to 03 years. In terms of legal science, the “hooligan nature” is used as one of the aggravating circumstances of criminal responsibility or framing circumstance or

heavy frame

- Dangerous recidivism: According to Clause 2, Article 53 of the 2015 Penal Code to determine.

- For a person performing official duties or for the victim's official duties: In this case, the offender causes injury to the victim to obstruct their performance of official duties or for the official duties of another person, causing injury.

Clause 2 uses the rate of bodily injury of 02 people, committing the crime 02 times, recidivism and the cases specified in points a to k, clause 1, Article 134 of the Penal Code to determine the increased penalty. Accordingly, committing a crime in one of the following cases shall be punished with imprisonment from 02 years to 06 years.

Clause 3 uses the rate of bodily injury to determine the aggravated penalty. Accordingly, if the crime falls into one of the specifically prescribed cases, the penalty is from 05 years to 10 years in prison.

1.1.2.3. Subject of the crime of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of another person

The Vietnamese Penal Code has recognized the subject of some crimes against commercial legal entities but has not yet provided a separate provision on the definition of the subject of the crime (only defining the subject of the crime as a specific person). According to the provisions of the Penal Code, it is understood that: "The subject of the crime is a specific person who intentionally or unintentionally commits a socially dangerous act, has full criminal responsibility capacity and has reached the age prescribed by the criminal law".

The subjects of the Crime of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of others are normal people who do not suffer from diseases that cause loss of mental awareness or another disease that makes them unable to control their behavior, who are 14 years of age or older and have criminal liability. According to the provisions of Article 12 of the 2015 Penal Code, amended and supplemented in 2017, people from 16 years of age or older must bear criminal responsibility for all crimes, except for crimes that this Code has other provisions. People from 14 years of age to under 16 years of age must bear criminal responsibility for very serious crimes, especially serious crimes of the Crime of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of others are also stipulated in 134 of this Penal Code. Therefore, the mandatory sign of the consequences of this type of crime is leaving injuries to the victim with a percentage of bodily injury according to the provisions of law.

According to the provisions of the Penal Code on the calculation of criminal liability age here, the age

Age is "14 years old" or "16 years old". In reality, it is not always easy to determine age, and in theory, this is usually based on the Birth Certificate to determine age. However, not in all cases there is still a Birth Certificate or the Birth Certificate is incorrect... According to the Official Dispatch guiding to overcome this problem in Section 11, Part II of Official Dispatch No. 81/2002/TANDTC dated June 10, 2002 on the method of calculating the age of criminal liability of criminals in general and the crime of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of others in particular. In the opinion of the students, this regulation is very scientific and appropriate, ensuring the principle of benefiting the offender as well as having appropriate legal measures to handle the offender.

1.1.2.4. Subjective aspect of the crime of intentionally causing injury or harm to the health of another person

In Vietnamese criminal law, "The subjective aspect of a crime is the internal psychological developments of the crime, reflecting the psychological state of the criminal subject with the fault, motive and purpose of committing the crime" . Accordingly, compulsory behavior with signs of crime, behavior with insignificant danger to society cannot be prosecuted, Clause 2, Article 8 of the Penal Code stipulates "Acts that have signs of crime but are insignificantly dangerous to society are not crimes and are handled by other measures".

This crime is committed with intent (indirectly or directly). That means the offender, when committing the act, is aware that his act is dangerous to society, foresees the consequences of that act and desires the consequences to occur; or the offender is aware that his act is dangerous to society, foresees the consequences of that act that may occur, although not desiring it, still consciously lets the consequences occur (Intentional crime is stipulated in Article 10 of the Penal Code). In case the object is accurately identified

This is an important basis for considering the level of criminal liability of the offender.

In terms of the subjective aspect of this crime, the mandatory sign of this crime is not in the motive and purpose. However, the provision of the act of causing injury or causing harm to the health of others is also included in some objective elements of the crime, but the mandatory sign is stipulated in the sign of the motive and purpose of the crime, thereby determining the correct motive and purpose of the crime will orient the right crime and distinguish this crime from other crimes (Crime of intentionally causing injury or causing harm to the health of others) such as: while performing official duties (Article 137 of the Penal Code), due to exceeding the limits of legitimate defense or due to exceeding the necessary level when arresting the offender (Article 136 of the Penal Code); Crime of terrorism against the people's government (Article 113 of the Penal Code).

1.2. Penalties

Article 134 of the Penal Code stipulates 5 penalty frameworks, including basic framework and aggravated framework. These penalties are specifically as follows:

1.2.1. Basic framework

Regulations on non-custodial reform penalties of up to 03 years or imprisonment from 06 months to 03 years where the victim's body injury rate is from 11% to 30% or less than 11% but falls into one of the crime cases from point a to point k as analyzed above:

- According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 134 of the 2015 Penal Code, anyone who intentionally causes injury or harm to the health of another person with a bodily injury rate of 11% to 30% or less than 11% but falls under one of the cases specified from point a to point k, that person will be prosecuted for criminal liability; and if a subject intentionally causes injury to another person, reducing health by less than 10% but not falling under the provisions of points a

Up to Clause 1 of this Article, that person's behavior does not constitute a crime and is not subject to criminal prosecution.

- Using weapons, explosives, dangerous weapons or tricks that can cause harm to many people: Compared to the 1999 Penal Code, the 2015 Penal Code adds 02 details of using weapons and explosives as framing details. However, the author personally holds the opinion that this addition is not really necessary and agrees with the approach of author Dinh Van Que when determining that dangerous weapons are the means that the offender uses to cause injury or harm to the health of others, but that means are specifically dangerous such as: guns, grenades, explosives, knives of all kinds, pears, ... Dangerous weapons are themselves capable of causing danger to life and health, it does not depend at all on the way the offender uses them [1l, p.78]. Thus, the content of dangerous weapons already includes explosives and weapons, so this addition is not really necessary.

The 1999 Penal Code stipulates the method of causing harm to many people, but there are still many difficulties in determining the method of causing harm to many people in practice because it proves that when the consequences have occurred and have caused harm to many people, then this circumstance can be considered and applied, but in reality, not all cases have consequences, so even though the method of implementation may cause the possibility of causing harm to many people, but in reality, it has not caused harm to many people, it is still impossible to apply this circumstance, which is inappropriate in practice when applying. Therefore, Article 134 of the 2015 Penal Code, Clause 1, Point a: This provision has been amended when adding the phrase "likely" which is absolutely urgent "...or the method is likely to cause harm to many people". Because this is the provision of the 2015 Penal Code that has overcome the above shortcomings by adding in the direction that only the means capable of causing harm to many people is enough to apply this circumstance. It is really very suitable.

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