Abstract
This study focuses on what the concept of criminal dangerousness raises within the legal sciences of the criminal field, as it is closely linked to the essence and nature of the criminal individual's personality and to the emotions and impulses residing in the depths of his tendencies and feelings, which are a source reflected in his outward behaviours. This necessitates shedding light on the nature of the controls and criteria through which the extent of individuals' criminal dangerousness can be determined, and which serve as a guiding light for the judge by means of which he can assess and evaluate this or that state of dangerousness and its magnitude, and which will be a path to taking the appropriate therapeutic measure or penal sanction for it. Perhaps the motive for this entire legal activity is to impose protection and provide prevention for society from all dangerous behaviours latent in the criminal that may issue as an outward act from him, by preventing this dangerousness from reaching society. What distinguishes the idea of this study is that it examines one of the most important fundamental principles upon which most contemporary criminal policies are based, after they had previously adopted an approach in which the criminal sanction was based on the idea of the abstract crime and the criminal act, without seeking to know the criminal motives of the person and to reveal the causes of the criminal's dangerousness, which may have come about due to many factors, some of which may be related to his psychological state or his mental or organic health, or may be linked to social factors, and the extent of the impact of the presence of these factors on the existence of a state of criminal dangerousness. Accordingly, it was necessary to study the opinions, ideas, and theories presented on the idea of criminal dangerousness in order to determine its role and effects in providing protection for society, and the extent of its ability to prevent the danger of criminals. There is no doubt that the Iraqi legislator has adopted the idea of criminal dangerousness and sought to regulate it, primarily under the Penal Code, as a basis for imposing precautionary measures and aggravating the penalty in recidivism crimes. In doing so, he drew a mechanism for proving criminal dangerousness by law, definitively closing the door to the discretionary interpretations of judicial authority except in cases of criminal recidivism as an aggravating circumstance for the penalty in the cases specified by law, and most contemporary legislations have likewise tended in this direction.
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