Insuperable fear as exemption of the penal responsibility and its implications in Medical Sciences

Abstract

Fear is a psychological status, a basic condition and inherent property of the human being that is activated under certain presumptions. Its determination or appreciation depends on the specialized criteria of psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists. When this status of very intense emotion becomes an insuperable fear and under it a subject acts, for the Penal Right, according to the Penal Code in force, protected by the article 26, the subject is exempted from the penal responsibility. With this research we pretend to characterize fear from the psychological point of view to understand it from the juridical point of view, and also determining the elements having influence on the integration of the insuperable fear as exemption from the penal responsibility. This is a very controversial theme inside the penal science, because although it was taken into account by the legislator, in the juridical practice it is scarcely used, assuming it as one of the main factors for it to be a matter of appreciation. Taking into account the eminently subjective character of the fear, as much for the person who suffers it as for the experts that have to prove it, it is comprehensive that the mentioned institution is avoided and in its place it is considered that the subject acted under coercion. The interdisciplinary content of this investigation has to serve as a premise for the specialist in Psychology, Medicine, Psychiatry, Sociology and Juridical Sciences to carry out their combined scientific work, and for the exemption not to be left only for the appreciation of the magistrate.