輕傷與重傷之區別，對於行為人刑責之判定，至為重要，我國刑法第十條第四項也因此設有重傷之立法定義，藉以協助刑事審判者進行適當的傷害評價。其中，從刑法對重傷所制定的概括條款（刑法第10 條第4 項第6 款）可知，所有的重傷都必須是「不治」或「難治」。亦即，不論是刑法第10條第4項所述的哪種重傷情形，其對被害人的痛苦與影響必須具有長期性，始能合理化刑法對重傷罪的嚴厲處罰，而傷害的長期性亦屬各種重傷結果的共通要素。對此重傷長期性要素的解釋，我國文獻較為薄弱，自可參考德語系國家對各該國重傷規定的長期性要素解釋，加以補充判斷。

It is very important to differentiate harm from mayhem to sentence the
actor. Therefore, Article 10, Section 4 of the R.O.C. Criminal Code mentions the legal definition of mayhem, in order to assist the judge to make the adequate evaluation of the injury. Amongthe article, we could know that all kinds of mayhem should be "can't be cured" or "is difficult to cured", from the generalization clause about mayhem in it. That is to say, no matter what kind of mayhem mentioned in Article 10, Section 4 of Criminal Code, it must bringlo ng-term pain and effect to the victims, then we just could rationalize the severe punishment about mayhem in Criminal Code. The longterm character of harm is also the common element of various effects of mayhem. There are few domestic literatures discussingabout the explanation of the long-term element in mayhem, so we can try to compare the related explanations in German-speakingcountr ies as reference.