Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Ministry of Power for Higher Education

Bicentennial University of Aragua

Law School – VI trimester

Of Injuries and
Quarrels

Teacher: Student:

Alvaro Herrera. Ruiz, Natalia CI: 27,800,784

Guayana City, June 2020

 Carrara explains that due to the influence of Christian civilization, of that
eminently physical conception regarding crimes, the production of disturbances or
anomalies in a person's psyche also came to be considered necessary for
protection. Carrara even said that these were considered more deserving of
punishment than those inflicted on the body in the physical sense. It was in this
way that a change in name occurred, since these crimes were called "bodily
injuries" and were now called "personal injuries." In this way, with this broader
expression, it would cover not only the effects produced on the human body, that
is, on the physical individuality of the human being, but also on their psychological
individuality.

Now, in any case, regardless of the concept of health that is used, “injury” must
always be understood as damage or harm to the physical sphere, the physiological
sphere or the psychological sphere of a person.

Serious Injuries, Art. 415CP

This article lowers the penalty (one to four years in prison) in relation to article
414 CP, and the injury must cause: Permanent disqualification, notable scar on the
face (more serious case than the previous one), mental or physical illness that
lasts twenty days or more; time in which the person is unable to carry out their
usual occupations, loss of a sense or an organ, permanent difficulty speaking; We
are not talking about abortion but about premature birth.

Serious injuries, specified in Art. 415CP which are one by one in detail and
establishes a time of assistance, healing or disqualification of twenty days or more.

There will be the intention (dolo) of an active subject who commits the crime of
injuring a passive subject, for which we will have a result; But to determine the
severity of the injury we will do so with forensic expertise called a legal medical
examination, which is essential to determine the crime of injury.

In said medical-legal examination, the forensic doctor indicates the days of

healing or convalescence, and also describes the characteristics of the injury,
which will determine its legal classification, which will allow us to classify it as a
less serious, serious, very serious, minor injury. or very light, that is, this is the way
to qualify this type of crime.

Minor Injuries, Art. 416 CP

It is any type of injury, but it establishes a healing period of ten days. The
penalty will be imprisonment for three to six months.

Very Minor Injuries, Art. 417 CP

Damage has simply been caused to a person (any damage) but he or she does
not need assistance, nor is he or she incapable of carrying out his or her usual job;
the penalty will be imprisonment for ten to forty-five days.

These crimes are influenced by:

a) The sorrow;
b) The type of injury;
c) The procedure to follow according to the COPP: For arrest crimes, the
COPP establishes that the abbreviated procedure must be followed,
therefore, the accusation will be brought directly before the single judge. For
the rest of the injury crimes, the ordinary procedure will be followed.

Qualified Injuries, Art. 406 CP

The injuries may be considered "qualified" when they occur in the

circumstances indicated in article 406 of the CP, which classifies the "qualifiers" of
the crime of homicide, among which are treachery, futile or ignoble motives,
patricide, assassination, among others. It may also be considered injuries of this
type, in the event that the crime was committed with insidious weapons or with any
other weapon itself, or by means of corrosive substances.

Aggravated Injuries, Art. 407 CP

For their part, the injuries will be "aggravated" when they are verified under the
circumstances indicated in article 407 of the CP, for example, when the victim is a
brother of the author, or is a high official, such as governor, minister, deputy of the
National Assembly, Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice, etc.

Preintentional Injuries, Art. 419 CP

There will be pre-intentional injuries when the damage that the author intended
to cause was less than the damage that he actually caused. Let us remember that
pre-intentional crimes are crimes with a double result, the first that is covered by
the will of the author, and the second that is more serious than the previous one,
but that is not wanted by the subject.

Thus, in the case of the crime of injuries, according to article 419 of the CP, it
will be punished in a mitigated manner when "the fact exceeds in its consequences
the goal that the guilty party intended." Therefore, pre-intentional injuries may be
very serious, serious, minor or very slight injuries. However, in these last degrees it
will be very difficult to appreciate pretermination, this because these are facts that
have practically no seriousness.

Culpable Injuries, Art. 420 CP

They are those injuries as referred to in the article as a result of recklessness,

negligence, inexperience in the profession, art or industry, or due to non-
observance of regulations, orders or disciplines; with which, bodily harm or harm to
their intellectual faculties is caused to another.

Also this article is related to the previous articles; Thus, in paragraph 1, Art. 420
to less serious and minor injuries; in section 2, to serious and very serious injuries,
and in section 3 to very minor culpable injuries, which is a crime of private action,
because it is instituted at the request of the aggrieved party, the Public Ministry
does not intervene, since it is only intervenes in crimes of public action.

Common provisions for crimes of homicide and injuries

Art. 422° Penal Code. The Courts will consider as a reason for mitigation in
trials for death or bodily injury, the fact that the events were caused by regular
mourning. In this case, the penalty corresponding to the punishable act may be
reduced from one to two thirds; and witnesses will receive a penalty equal to that
imposed on the killer or wounder, reduced by half.

If there is disloyalty in the duel (irregular duel), this circumstance will be

considered aggravating for the application of the penalties corresponding to the
homicide or injuries that have resulted; and the witnesses will be considered as co-
authors.

In the case of homicide committed in a hand-to-hand fight, if the injured or

injured party has provoked it and even if the injurer or killer has accepted it or
continued it despite having been able to stop it or have been able to refrain from
fighting without serious risk, it will be taken into account. that circumstance and the
corresponding penalty will be applied with the mitigation provided for in the first
part of this article.

In these cases, if the incident has originated from one of the parties having
offended the honor or reputation of the other or their family in a public document or
with writings or drawings disclosed or exposed to the public or with other means of
publicity, it is will consider the author of these events as a provocateur; Depending
on the seriousness of the defamation, the Courts may change the penalty that
corresponds to the person who injured or killed the provocateur, in confinement for
the same period of time, with the anticipated reduction.

The regulated duel is established in the first underlined part of Art. 422° Penal
Code. This regular duel, now in disuse, comes from an old custom of solving
problems that had to do with honor by fighting a duel. In principle, it occurred
between the bourgeois and the commoners, and it was called a rustican duel; from
which the Creole duel came; and where, due to the law of retaliation (an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth), they sought to settle or use any other means to take
justice into their own hands through the use of violence.

It then refers to the fact that the courts will consider these facts as grounds for
mitigation in trials, with a sentence reduced by one to two thirds; applying to
witnesses a penalty equal to that of the killer or wounder reduced by half; so we
have, in this case, an active plurisubjectivity, because there are several subjects;
active subject (killer or wounder), and those who are going to be punished in the
same way as this one, in this case, the witnesses, and the passive subject.

The following section of article 422 of the Penal Code refers to irregular duel,
which consists of the same regular duel, but with violation of the conditions
imposed for the duel in favor of one of the parties, which leaves the other in the
clear. disadvantage; case in which, the witnesses will be considered co-authors, for
having agreed to violate the previously established conditions; An example of this
would be if the duel was agreed upon with the use of guns; and the witnesses
agree to give one of the parties a gun without bullets, which leaves him at an open
disadvantage.

The next section tells us what a hand-to-hand fight is, which unlike a duel has
not been pre-established, premeditated, but rather occurs at a certain moment,
without any type of preparation, without witnesses or judges; It is more common
today.

The last one apart from Art. 422° Penal Code tells us that if there is provocation,
this will be considered a cause of mitigation, for the person who causes death or
injury to the person who caused the situation.

The duel.

Dueling in our legislation does not constitute a special crime, it is only

considered an attenuating or aggravating circumstance in cases of homicide or
personal injury. There are two types of duels, among them the regular duel stands
out, which is a type of combat covered with certain formalities, which has been
practiced from the 15th century to the 20th century in Western societies, which can
be defined as a combat agreed upon between two knights, who use deadly
weapons in accordance with rules that must be respected for the honor of the
contestants, who in turn were each accompanied by a godfather. Art 420 CP.

The Fight
 It is a dispute, from the point of view of Criminal Law, it is the concurrence of
actions of violence, reciprocal and tumultuous, of more than two people and that
result in the death or injuries of one or more contenders.

The Venezuelan Penal Code does not define a fight, but on the one hand
provides for the so-called body-to-body fight and equates it to regular mourning, as
well as contemplates a tumultuous fight, in which several people intervene and
whenever they result in someone dead or injured. Art 425 CP.

Guys

 Hand-to-hand fight : It is a punishable fight, scuffle, fight between two people,

with or without weapons, provoked by one and accepted by the other, without
advantages or treachery, in relative equality of circumstances and in which,
therefore, Both contenders run at least equal or similar risks and dangers.
The immediate cooperator is that subject who directly participates in the
execution of a typical and illegal act without having control over it.

 Tumultuous Fight: It is a crime that requires several active and passive

subjects, who are simultaneously aggressors and attacked, within the
framework of a mutually accepted fight, or a reciprocally consented fight. Each
of the participants is an actor provoking the confrontation, so it is not possible to
appeal to legitimate defense.

There must be a scuffle, what the doctrine calls a "tumultuous brawl", that is, in
other words, a collective brawl, where several subjects cause injuries (or also
death) to a single subject. In this case, it is necessary to determine who are the
subjects who attacked the injured person or killed the person; who, although they
participated in the fight, did not attack him and who or who are responsible for
provoking the fight; since these are the active subjects of the riot, who will be
sanctioned according to the seriousness of the event and their degree of
participation in it as stated in article 425 of the Penal Code.
 Article 426, ejusdem, adds that the first person to take out a firearm or knife will
be punished with a penalty separate from what may be punished for the crimes
provided for in the previous article.

Non-punishment for the defense of property.

Legitimate Defense: It consists when a person, upon being attacked, attacks the
victim, potentially causing damage to the attacker or aggressor, whether it be
injuries or death, exempting the victim from criminal liability, as long as he or she
complies with the requirements established by the art. 65 3rd ordinal of the CP,
which are:

Illegitimate aggression: studying any act contrary to law that may cause or
endanger the physical integrity of the victim. What is equated to self-defense as an
exemption from criminal responsibility; It consists of when a person causes harm to
another, believing that the other person is going to cause harm, feeling or
perceiving at that moment fear, terror, or uncertainty.

1. Fear: when the person feels afraid that another person is allegedly going to
cause harm.
2. Terror: consists when the person feels panic of an eminent and alleged
attack towards a person.
3. Uncertainty: when the person feels doubt that the other person is going to
attack him or not. For the person to be exempt from criminal liability, they
must meet these requirements without missing any of them.

For its part, the Venezuelan Penal Code, Article 65, paragraphs 3 and 4,
indicates: It is not punishable:

He who acts in defense of his own person or right, provided that the following
circumstances occur:

1. Illegitimate aggression by the person who is offended by the act.

2. Necessity of the means used to prevent or repel it.
3. Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person who claims to have
acted in self-defense. The fact with which the agent, in a state of
 uncertainty, fear or terror, crosses the limits of the defense is equated to
self-defense.
4. He who acts constrained by the need to save his person, or that of another,
from a serious and imminent danger, for which he has not voluntarily given
cause, and which he cannot avoid in any other way.

Correspective Complicity, Art. 424CP

Art. 424° Penal Code. "When several people have taken part in the
perpetration of death or injury and it cannot be discovered who caused it, all
of them will be punished with the penalties corresponding to the crime
committed, reduced from one third to one half.

This penalty reduction will not be applied to the immediate cooperator in the
act."

It is common in investigations carried out in fights or homicides where several

subjects have participated, as well as in injuries crimes where several people have
participated; because among the participants, it is a kind of matter of honor not to
give themselves away or take credit for the fact that caused the injury or death of
the passive subject; For these cases, the legal figure that is used to punish those
who participated in the incident without it being possible to determine exactly who
committed the crime, whether injury or homicide, is the so-called corresponding
complicity, and, in this sense, it is applied the penalty corresponding to the crime
(injury or homicide) but with a reduction of u a third part to half.

Correspective complicity is a subsidiary figure, which indicates that if there is no

crime of homicide or injuries, this figure cannot be applied; because corresponding
complicity only applies to the crimes of homicide and injuries, in any of their types
or modalities.

Bibliography

 Fernandez, A. (2013). Crimes Against Persons. Recovered from,

https://infogram.com/delitos-contra-las-personas-1gv4m7d7o51km18
 Santaella, C. (2014). Guide to Criminal Law II (Venezuela). Recovered from,
https://www.monografias.com/trabajos91/guia-derecho-penal-ii/guia-derecho-
penal-ii3.shtml
 Figueroa, Y. (2018). The Crime of Injuries. Retrieved from,
http://yvanfigueroaortega.simplesite.com/438135719
 Venezuelan law. (2013). The Crime of Intentional Personal Injury. Retrieved
from, https://derechovenezolano.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/el-delito-de-
lesiones-personales-intencionales/