Connection offense

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When connecting offenses (also Anschlusstat ) are in German criminal law the offenses referred to, which adjoin a criminal unlawful predicate offense. The German Criminal Code (StGB) regulates four different follow-up offenses in the 21st section of the Special Part : Favoring ( § 257 StGB), obstruction of punishment ( § 258 StGB), stealing ( § 259 StGB) and money laundering ( § 261 StGB). In addition, the section contains several qualifications for these offenses: thwarting punishment in office ( Section 258a of the Criminal Code) and stealing as a commercial and gang type (Sections 260 , 260a of the Criminal Code).

The grouping of these crimes, which are different from today's point of view, under the term “affiliate crimes” is primarily justified because - with the exception of money laundering - they share a common history. The development of the connection acts in the German legal system was inextricably linked to participation until 1870 . Today's favoritism, prevention of punishment and receiving stolen goods were previously recorded as aiding and abetting after the act, a category which, according to today's view, is not justified because of the causal dogma - after the act, the main act can no longer be carried. It comes from the reception of Roman-Italian law of the 14th to 16th centuries, which knew the doctrine of the three times of aiding and abetting: before, during and after the crime. It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that the view prevailed that there could be no aiding and abetting after the offense, and instead the focus of consideration was the transfer of favor to the predecessor; Actions that secure benefits, fend off punishment and stealthy acts were equally understood as "favoring". But it was noticeable that the stolen goods, although often helping the predecessor because of the sale of prey, are usually committed for their own benefit. In the course of the 19th century, this realization led to the fact that stolen goods because of self-interest were eliminated from favoritism and understood as an independent crime. The privilege, henceforth only separated as a factual (ie securing advantage) and personal (ie preventing punishment) beneficiary, was only recognized as a "delictum sui generis" with the creation of the Imperial Criminal Code in 1870 and was regulated in a special section. The differentiation of the thwarting of punishment from the so outlined "mixed offense" of favoritism - with the result that only objective favoritism is considered to be favored today - then took place in the 20th century, initially in the course of legal interests in legal doctrine, then in 1974 through the Reform of the criminal offenses through the EGStGB 1974 also in the criminal code. This law created what is essentially still the legal status in Sections 257 ff. Of the Criminal Code. In 1992, money laundering was added in Section 261 of the Criminal Code. The legislature has deliberately assigned them to follow-up offenses, because they too are linked to a previous criminal offense. Seen in this way, this formal categorization has also been recognized by the legislature.

But there is also a material justification for this conceptualization, which follows from the effect of the criminal offenses. Because the follow-up offenses provide assistance to the predecessor - prohibited by §§ 257 ff. StGB - such helping acts ultimately stimulate the commission of such predicate offenses, because the possible "settlement" of the offenses makes their commission worthwhile. This is the approach of the so-called doctrine of legal validity, according to which the inspection of the connection offenses undermines the general preventive function of the previous offense threats. The facts of affiliation offenses thus find their material unity in preventing such help after the offense as far as possible.

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