Sacrificeless crime
A victimless crime , also victimless crime , is defined as a crime that is punishable even though it does not appear to harm anyone.
It is not a legal term, but a legal political term. There is now consensus in jurisprudence that the task of criminal law is not simply to protect victims, but to protect both individual and supra-individual legal interests . The term victimless crime is intended to express that a criminal offense should be abolished because the legal interest is not recognized or its protection does not need to be done with the means of criminal law. Sometimes a victimless crime is also referred to as an act that causes harm but cannot be attributed to individual individuals.
A criminal offense that does not have any legitimate protective purpose would be a disproportionate interference with fundamental rights and thus unconstitutional and void under German law . The criminal law is also based on the impunity of self-harm. However, this does not mean that only the violation of legal interests may be made a criminal offense, rather dangerous offenses also exist .
The following are or have been designated as victimless crimes:
- Manufacture and possession of illegal drugs for personal use - protected legal interest is the public health
- Residence in a different district of a foreigners authority than the assigned district ( residence obligation ) - the protected legal interest here is the efficiency of the work of the immigration authorities
- Operation of pirate transmitters - a protected legal interest is the smooth flow of radio communications
- the prostitution in the restricted area , imperceptible from the outside - here the protection of minors is the protected legal interest
- Incest (also consensual ) - protected legal interest is the protection of the closest family from sexual relations, in addition, dangers to the sexual self-determination and psychological development of the partner as well as the danger of eugenic and genetic damage or traditional moral concepts are mentioned as a punishment
- Homosexuality - a protected legal interest in Germany was the “keeping the people in good health”, that is, social moral concepts
Consensual crime
Occasionally, victimless crimes are not clearly delimited from consensual crimes , i.e. crimes in which all potential victims consent to the commission of the crime. However, the legal systems usually have a state of incapacity to make decisions (or in this case: incapacity to refuse), so that even an actor consenting to the act can still be the victim of another actor. Such a constellation is ruled out in the case of victimless crimes , since there is no victim.
Web links
- Propaganda offenses and victimless crimes ( memento from April 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), article by Peter Mühlbauer on Telepolis , April 9, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ Winfried Hassemer: Theory and Sociology of Crime: Approaches to a Practice-Oriented Doctrine of Legal Protection . 1973, ISBN 978-3-7610-6010-0 , pp. 88 ( Theory and Sociology of Crime: Approaches to a Practice-Oriented Doctrine of Legal Protection ).
- ↑ Claus Roxin: Basic criminal law problems . 1972, ISBN 978-3-11-004384-6 , pp. 13 ( Basic criminal law problems ).
- ↑ BGHSt 39, 326, 329.
- ^ Lenckner / Bosch , in: Schönke / Schröder, Criminal Code. Commentary, 29th edition, Beck, Munich 2014, § 173 Rn. 1.
