Classification of crimes against freedom in polish penal codes

Abstract

In the Polish Penal Code of 1932, Chapter XXXVI "Offences against freedom" contained only five types of offences: deprivation of liberty (Article 248), slave trafficking (Article 249), punishable threat (Article 250), extortion (Article 251) and home intrusion, known as violation of domestic peace (Article 252). In general, the object of legal protection in the whole above-mentioned group of offences was personal freedom of an individual, which he or she enjoyed within the legal order in force within society at that time. It was stated that freedom can be understood in two ways: a) as physical freedom, freedom of movement, to move from place to place; b) as moral freedom, freedom to dispose of one’s goods, to exercise or not to exercise one’s rights, to undertake one action or another. However, in both of the above-mentioned cases, personal freedom can only be the object of the offence if the criminal conduct is directed against it.