Descriere
The crime of bodily harm, a criminal offense that is apparently not very difficult to manage by judicial bodies, raises, in practice, serious problems regarding the way in which the traumatic injuries suffered by victims as a result of criminal activity are evaluated, for the purpose of resolving the criminal action, but also the civil one within the criminal process.
The consequences of this offence require a dual analysis: first, under the rules of criminal law, for the purpose of legal classification, and second, under the rules of civil law, for the resolution of the civil claim, namely the determination of damages. A multidisciplinary approach is mandatory, with the role of forensic medicine being significant.
Although the criteria used to assess traumatic consequences differ depending on whether the proceedings are criminal or civil in nature, this distinction is often blurred in practice, the tendency being to use only the trauma evaluation criteria found in criminal law norms for resolving both criminal and civil actions. Thus, the provisions of Article 19 of the Code of Criminal Procedure are violated.
Another non-compliance is represented by the way in which bodily harm is defined, in the form provided under Article 194(1)(b) Criminal Code. The text of the law shows that the health impairment is ascertained and assessed by using the forensic criterion of the number of days of medical care, although this is used exclusively for the assessment of traumatic injuries.
More clarity on these aspects, with the understanding of the need for a multidisciplinary approach, will lead to a more efficient management of the cases and implicitly to an effective guarantee of the fundamental rights violated by such criminal acts. To the same extent, the text of the law could be corrected.
