Evaluating the Institution of Repentance in Iran's Legislative Criminal Policy

the institution of repentance (Tawbah), as one of the most significant leniency-based institutions in Islamic criminal law, occupies a distinctive position in Iran's legislative criminal policy. The Iranian legislature, through the Islamic Penal Code of 2013, has recognized important legal consequences for repentance, including the mitigation or remission of punishment. Nevertheless, the legal provisions governing repentance face several challenges and ambiguities regarding their theoretical foundations, conditions of acceptance, the scope of crimes covered, and the jurisdiction of judicial authorities in determining and enforcing its legal effects. This study aims to evaluate the status of the institution of repentance within Iran's legislative criminal policy and to examine the extent to which its legal framework conforms to Islamic jurisprudential principles, modern criminal law theories, and the rehabilitative objectives of criminal policy. The principal research question is: To what extent have the legal provisions governing repentance in Iran's legislative criminal policy succeeded in achieving rehabilitative and reformative objectives, and what are their principal shortcomings?

This research adopts a descriptive-analytical approach. The findings indicate that, by recognizing the institution of repentance, the Iranian legislature has embraced a reform-oriented approach grounded in the principles of restorative justice, offender rehabilitation, and the individualization of punishment. However, restricting the legal effects of repentance in certain ḥadd and ta'zir offenses, the absolute exclusion of repeat offenders from its application, the absence of clear criteria for establishing genuine remorse, and the ambiguity concerning the competent judicial authority to determine and enforce the legal consequences of repentance constitute some of the major challenges of Iran's legislative criminal policy.