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Austria Penal Codes
Early criminal codes merely listed crimes--their definitions
were considered self-evident or unnecessary--and provided for the
extreme punishments characteristic of the Middle Ages. The codes
did not presume to list all possible crimes, and a judge was
authorized to determine the criminality of other acts and to fix
sentences at his discretion. The first unified crime code was
enacted in 1768, during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa.
Investigation, prosecution, and defense were all in the hands of
a judge. The code contained illustrated directions for the
application of "painful interrogation," that is, torture, if the
judge entertained suspicions regarding a defendant. Torture was
outlawed a few years later, however. The Josephine Code of 1787,
enacted by Joseph II, declared that there was "no crime without a
law," thus, an act not defined as a crime was not a crime.
Although it was a humanitarian document, the code had
shortcomings that were remedied to a considerable extent by the
codes of 1803 and 1852. A modern code of criminal procedure
adopted in 1873 provided that ordinary court proceedings had to
be oral and open. Capital punishment, which was prohibited for a
time after 1783, was reinstituted and remained a possible
punishment until 1950. Imprisonment in chains and corporal
punishment were abolished in the mid-1800s.
The Austrian criminal code and code of criminal procedure
were riddled with Nazi amendments between 1938 and 1945 after the
Anschluss, but each code was restored to its 1938 status when the
country regained independence. Revisions of the criminal code in
the mid-1960s, based on ten years of work by a legal commission,
give strong emphasis to the principle of government by law and
allow unusual latitude in determining appropriate punishment and
its implementation. Austria attempts to distinguish among
lawbreakers whose crimes are committed on impulse, those who are
susceptible to rehabilitation, and those who are addicted to
crime and are incorrigible. Further reforms of the criminal code
in 1974 emphasized the importance of avoiding jail sentences
whenever possible because of the potentially antisocial effects
of even a short prison term. Vagrancy, begging, and prostitution
are specifically decriminalized. In large communities,
prostitution is regulated by health authorities, and prostitutes
and brothels are registered. Individual local jurisdictions
retain the authority to prohibit prostitution, however.
Provisions in the 1974 law modified the punishment for business
theft and shoplifting and restricted the definitions of riotous
assembly and insurrection.
Data as of December 1993
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