Absorption principle
The absorption principle is regulated in Section 52 (1 ) and ( 2) StGB ( unit of act ) and states that if several criminal laws or the same criminal law are violated several times by the same act, only one punishment is recognized. If several criminal laws are violated (unequal offenses), the punishment is based on the law that provides the most severe threat of punishment. At the same time, the minimum penalty can be found in the law, which provides for the highest minimum penalty (combination model).
On the one hand, the absorption principle aims to prevent a perpetrator from receiving multiple sentences for the same act. The same act can be an act in the natural sense, i.e. a decision and an act of will, or a legal unit of action, i.e. the combination of several acts into a legal evaluation unit. Without absorption, a tearing apart of the (uniform) life process would result, in particular, in a penalty that is alien to life.
example
A injures B by stabbing B in the arm with a knife through his shirt. Here there is (in principle) a unity between property damage and bodily harm. The higher penalty threatens the offense of bodily harm under Section 223 of the Criminal Code, therefore the penalty is based on this.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dreher / Tröndle, § 52 StGB, marginal no. 2.
