Criminal abuse of power - selected criminal law issues using the example of police officers

The article features the crucial issues regarding the crime of abuse of power stipulated in Article 231 of the Polish Penal Code, based on cases that could be perpetrated by police offi cers. The author briefl y describes the basic elements of the structure of this crime, as seen through the eyes of the doctrine of criminal law and the judicatory. The author presents his own assessments, which shed new light on the questionable meanings of certain features of the crime in question. The key part of the work focuses on selected, thoroughly analysed, hypothetical cases of criminal abuse of power by police offi cers, and in this sense is a kind of case study.