Causes leading to change of punishment are such conditions, circumstances or contexts which are exterior to the contents of the crime and which outline a higher or lower level of social danger of the deed or of dangerous behavior of the criminal, thus determining a change of punishment, either in terms of quantity (in the form of duration or amount), or in terms of quality (change of one main punishment by another). In these causes, a distinction is made between attenuating and aggravating causes. The attenuating causes category includes attenuating conditions and attenuating circumstances, while the aggravating causes category includes aggravating conditions and aggravating circumstances.