threat
Threat is a jeopardizing offense that threatens to commit a crime against a person or someone close to the person. In German criminal law, it is sufficient that the threat is simulated. In this case, it is very important that the threat is serious ; Whether the threatened person takes this seriously is irrelevant. It is also irrelevant whether the perpetrator can or wants to actually implement the threat. A threat can also arise from implied behavior . The threat is a criminal offense , which is regulated in § 241 StGB .
general definition
A threat is a serious hazard with the mere possibility that damage to the object ( person , company , object ) or the occurrence of a threat to the attacked legal interest can occur.
Wording of the law
This provision of § 241 StGB reads:
(1) Anyone who threatens a person with the commission of a crime directed against him or a person close to him is punished with imprisonment for up to one year or with a fine.
(2) Anyone who, against his better judgment, pretends to a person that a crime against him or a person close to him is imminent will also be punished.
Legal interest
The Federal Constitutional Court has designated the legal peace of the individual as the legal interest protected by § 241 StGB. The phrase goes back to the Reichsgericht that legal protection is individual trust in legal security .
The individual elements of the offense
Paragraph 1 of the regulation contains the actual threat. According to this, the threat must be against an (individual) person, not against a collective or an organization. The threatened act must be a crime , i.e. an unlawful and culpable act that is at least threatened with imprisonment of one year (cf. § 12 StGB).
Paragraph 2 also contains the fact that the 14th Amendment of the Criminal Law Act adds pretense, according to which a person is also punishable who provides the victim with the realization of a third-party or his own crime which is imminent for the victim himself or a person close to him, although this is like the perpetrator knows, in truth, is not the case.
Subjective fact
The act can only be committed intentionally; in principle, conditional intent is sufficient for the individual elements of the offense to be realized . In the case of a threatened offense, the perpetrator not only has to know all the facts that support the legal classification of the threatened act as a crime, but he also has to be aware that it is a serious crime. In the case of fraudulent behavior, the perpetrator must act against his better judgment; with regard to the pretense, a dolus directus is required .
Legal consequence
The act is punishable by imprisonment for up to one year or a fine .
literature
- Carl Creifelds : Legal Dictionary
- Wilfried Küper : threat and warning. For the reconstruction and revision of the classic concept of threat. In: Goltdammer's Archive for Criminal Law (GA). 153 vol., 2006, pp. 439-468.
- Reinhart Maurach , Friedrich-Christian Schroeder: Criminal law, special part. Textbook. Volume 1: Offenses against personal and property rights. 9th, revised edition. Müller, Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 3-8114-2344-4 , § 16.
