Imputability corresponds to ability to hold someone responsible for an offence.
A term widely used in Criminal Law, it determines those people who can be punished, that is, who are liable. It means that these individuals were in full physical and mental condition and were aware of the act they committed was a crime or a misdemeanor.
Mental illness or incomplete mental development can only be used to release the subject from liability if prove that at the time of the offense the individual was deprived of any possibility of understanding and self-determination.
Article 26 of the Brazilian Penal Code also records that minors under 18 years of age are non-imputable, that is, they are not liable to assume responsibility for the crimes they commit.
Liability is one of the terms of culpability. The concept is not unanimous in legal doctrine, but there is an understanding that culpability is formed by the following dimensions:
- Imputability
- Possibility of knowing the illegality (if the subject was able to understand that the act to be committed was unlawful, that is, punishable by penalty)
- Requirement of different conduct (if at the time it was possible for the agent to take another attitude)