With 646 articles, the code deals with judicial organization, criminal procedure, and criminal punishment[fr]. It distinguishes between the functions of administrative police, which is concerned with the prevention of crimes and offenses, and judicial police, which is concerned with the investigation of crimes and identification of suspects. This distinction is still in force today and is a functional distinction, which does not necessarily imply an organizational separation: a single organization may be charged with carrying out both types of police functions: one example is the National Gendarmerie.
The code is notable for abandoning corporal (afflictive) penalties, with the exception of the death penalty, including for espionage.[2]
The Code was also distinguished by creating prison sentences, the harshest of which is known as the peine de la gêne, and consists of a fifty-year imprisonment in a windowless cell without any possibility of communication with either outside persons or inmates.
