{"id":239097,"date":"2023-05-17T09:27:24","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T09:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corujojimenezabogados.com\/derecho-penal\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:12:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:12:52","slug":"derecho-penal","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/corujojimenezabogados.com\/en\/derecho-penal\/","title":{"rendered":"Criminal Law"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Criminal Law<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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\"Criminal<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Threats, coercion and harassment<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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The crime of threats is typified and regulated in the Spanish Penal Code in articles 169 to 171.<\/p>\n

This is a crime of a markedly subjective nature, since one person can understand as a threat something that another might not do. For this reason, it is very important to have specialized legal assistance from the very beginning, which allows for the collection and submission of reliable evidence of what happened (documents, witnesses, recordings, etc.).<\/p>\n

The legal right protected is the individual's freedom to act.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

The crime of threats <\/strong>consists of the action or expression that anticipates the intention of harming or endangering another person.<\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

The aim of the perpetrator may be twofold: to prevent what the law does not prohibit or to carry out an undesired action, whether just or unjust. In addition, the violence exercised on the victim may be physical, compulsive (intimidation) or involve force in things.<\/p>\n

We are faced with a crime of coercion in those cases in which someone is prevented from accessing or leaving a place; when preventing the use of a vehicle; persecuting or constantly watching someone, etc.<\/p>\n

There is also a crime of coercion when multiple calls are made in a short period of time.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

Coercion <\/strong>is a crime against personal freedom that involves the use of violence or intimidation to force the passive subject to do something against his will or to prevent him from doing something that is not prohibited by law. It is regulated in article 172 of the Penal Code, and goes against the freedom to act, physical freedom or the freedom to do or not to do something.<\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

It is a crime that also occurs on many occasions in the context of a tenancy relationship, since changing the entry of the lock, to prevent the entry to the home of a person who does not pay the rent, or cutting off the electricity or water supply, to ensure their exit, may presuppose the commission of the crime.<\/p>\n

Harassment is criminalized under Article 172 ter of the Penal Code.<\/p>\n

It occurs when a person persecutes, harasses, watches, seeks physical proximity or contacts with another person in an insistent and regular manner and without having the authorization to do so or the person being followed desires this situation. In addition, these actions must provoke in the victim alterations in the normal development of his or her daily life.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

If you believe you are a victim of this situation, contact Corujo & Jim\u00e9nez Abogados <\/strong>so that we can provide you with the best legal assistance and help you regain your peace of mind and normality.<\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

The stalker's behaviors may consist of surveillance, persecution, or insistent pursuit of physical contact or closeness. It is also known as stalking<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Currently, one of the most typical modalities of this crime is cyberstalking<\/em>, which occurs on social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or Twitter or through instant messaging such as WhatsApp or Telegram.<\/p>\n

Mainly, cyberstalking <\/em>occurs on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, where most people make their information available to anyone, via email or instant messaging services such as WhatsApp.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Attempt and resistance to authority<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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These crimes are regulated in Articles 550 to 556 of the Penal Code, under Chapter II: \"Attempts against the authority, its agents and public officials, and resistance and disobedience\", within \"Crimes against public order\" of Title XXII of Book II.<\/p>\n

Specifically, articles 550 to 554 are dedicated to regulating the crime of attacking the authority, its agents and public officials, while article 556 regulates the crime of resistance and serious disobedience to the authority.<\/p>\n

The legal right protected by these crimes is public order, understood as the guarantee of peaceful social coexistence. Thus, with the crimes of attacks, resistance and disobedience to authority, the aim is to protect tranquility and the normal exercise of fundamental rights and public liberties by the citizens of a society.<\/p>\n

The punishable act is subscribed to those who oppose serious resistance to the authority, highlighting among them their own agents or public officials (including also teachers or health officials), when they are in the exercise of their duties or on the occasion of their positions.<\/p>\n

The distinction between both crimes has been declared by the jurisprudence emanating from the Supreme Court (highlighting the Judgment of December 20, 2017), which has configured that if the serious resistance in front of the authority is active (pushing or hitting an agent), we speak of a crime of assault, while if it is passive (opposing an arrest or an identification or struggling with the agents), we are facing a crime of resistance, which also occurs when the resistance used by the accused is not so serious.<\/p>\n

It is a crime usually committed in front of police officers (whether they are national, municipal or Civil Guards). In this type of crime, the accused will encounter the added problem that the accusation is formulated by an agent of the law, to whom a principle of veracity is presupposed. For this reason, it is essential to have specialized legal assistance from the very beginning, which will allow the collection of sufficient evidence to confront the version of the agents and to make it possible that the testimony of the investigated, from his first statement in police headquarters, is persistent, credible, credible and lacking in contradictions, in order to procure the filing of the proceedings or, if necessary, to obtain an acquittal sentence in due course.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Disclosure and Discovery of Secrets<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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The crime of discovery and disclosure of secrets is regulated in articles 197 to 201 of the Penal Code.<\/p>\n

Although they are contained in the same precepts, each actually involves a different conduct. Discovery implies the seizure, use, modification or interception of the data referred to in the Criminal Code, while disclosure - punishable by a higher penalty - requires its transfer, disclosure or dissemination.<\/p>\n

The legal rights protected in these articles are the right to privacy and the right to one's own image.<\/p>\n

For this crime to be committed, the offender must discover secrets or violate the privacy of the victim, either by taking possession of messages in any format (physical or digital) or through image and sound recording devices, among others.<\/p>\n

It is an activity crime, since the intention of the offender to discover the secret is sufficient, but it is not necessary that the disclosure actually takes place.<\/p>\n

This type of crime is increasing strongly in the digital environment due to the extensive use of messaging applications, social networks and email. In fact, article 197 bis of the Criminal Code describes the criminal offense for the crime of discovery of secrets by computer means and article 197 ter of the Criminal Code describes the criminal offense of making available computer means to commit the crime of discovery of secrets.<\/p>\n

One of the most frequent modalities is the so-called sexting<\/em>, which is a criminal offense based on the fact of sharing erotic or sexual content with third parties without the authorization of its owner, since the fact of sending or exchanging erotic, compromising or sexual videos or photos with another person in a private and voluntary manner does not authorize it to be disclosed to third parties.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Theft and Robbery<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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Most property crimes are based on the idea of unjust enrichment of the active subject (perpetrator) at the cost of property damage to the passive subject (injured party). Enrichment should be understood in a broad sense, as an illicit patrimonial benefit for the perpetrator or for a third party, as a consequence of the damage caused to the assets harmed by the criminal action.<\/p>\n

Profit motive is expressly required for these two types of crime, being these, crimes of seizure, since they normally require a physical displacement of things from the assets of the passive subject to those of the active subject, and with this, a material action: \"taking\" or \"seizing\".<\/p>\n

Theft<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is the basic figure of the crimes against patrimony with respect to the seizure or material appropriation of movable things, without force and without violence or intimidation to persons, and its protected legal right is possession.<\/p>\n

It is regulated in articles 234 to 236 of the Penal Code, within the crimes against patrimony and the socioeconomic order.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Su t\u00edtulo va aqu\u00ed<\/h5><\/div>\n\n
Article 234.<\/h5>
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  • Whoever, for profit, takes another's movable property without the will of its owner shall be punished, as a theft offender, with a prison sentence of six to eighteen months if the amount of the stolen property exceeds 400 euros.<\/li>\n
  • A fine of one to three months shall be imposed if the amount of the stolen goods does not exceed 400 euros, unless any of the circumstances of Article 235 apply. However, in the event that the guilty party has been convicted of at least three offenses under this Title, even if they are of a minor nature, provided that they are of the same nature and that the cumulative amount of the offenses exceeds 400 euros, the penalty of paragraph 1 of this Article shall be imposed.<\/li>\n
  • No canceled or should be canceled records will be taken into account.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

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    The penalties established in the preceding paragraphs shall be imposed in their upper half when in the commission of the act the alarm or security devices installed on the stolen goods have been neutralized, eliminated or rendered useless by any means.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

    Article 235.<\/h5>

    1. Theft shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of one to three years:<\/p>\n

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    • When things of artistic, historical, cultural or scientific value are stolen.<\/li>\n
    • \u00ba When it is a matter of basic necessities and a situation of shortage is caused.<\/li>\n
    • \u00ba When it concerns pipelines, wiring, equipment or components of infrastructures for the supply of electricity, hydrocarbons or telecommunications services, or other things intended for the provision of services of general interest, and serious damage is caused to them.<\/li>\n
    • \u00ba When it concerns agricultural or livestock products, or the instruments or means used to obtain them, provided that the offense is committed on agricultural or livestock farms and serious damage is caused to them.<\/li>\n
    • \u00ba When it is particularly serious, taking into account the value of the stolen effects, or when there are special damages of special consideration.<\/li>\n
    • When it places the victim or his family in a serious economic situation or has been carried out abusing his personal circumstances or his situation of helplessness, or taking advantage of the production of an accident or the existence of a general risk or danger to the community that has weakened the defense of the offended party or facilitated the unpunished commission of the crime.<\/li>\n
    • When the offender has been convicted of at least three offenses included in this Title, provided they are of the same nature. Expunged records or records that should have been expunged shall not be taken into account.<\/li>\n
    • \u00ba When minors under sixteen years of age are used for the commission of the offense.<\/li>\n
    • \u00ba When the guilty party or parties participate in the facts as members of a criminal organization or group dedicated to the commission of crimes included in this Title, provided that they are of the same nature.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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      1. The penalty set forth in the preceding paragraph shall be imposed in its upper half when two or more of the circumstances set forth therein concur.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
        Article 236<\/h5>

        A fine of three to twelve months shall be imposed on anyone who, being the owner of a movable thing or acting with the owner's consent, steals it from a person who legitimately has it in his possession, to the detriment of the owner or of a third party.<\/p>\n

        If the value of the stolen item does not exceed 400 euros, a fine of one to three months shall be imposed.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

        Theft<\/strong><\/p>\n

        The protected legal right is also the possession of movable property, being the material object, the movable property of others, also requiring in this type of crime, the subjective element of profit motive.<\/p>\n

        The main difference lies in the use of force on things.<\/p>\n

        It is regulated in articles 237 to 242 of the Penal Code, within the crimes against patrimony and the socioeconomic order.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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        Su t\u00edtulo va aqu\u00ed<\/h5><\/div>\n\n
        Article 237.<\/h5>
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          The crime of robbery is committed by those who, for profit, take possession of another's movable property by using force to gain access to or leave the place where the property is located or violence or intimidation of persons, either when committing the crime, to protect the escape, or on those who come to the aid of the victim or who pursue the victim.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

          Article 238.<\/h5>

          Those who commit the crime of robbery with force against things are guilty of the crime when any of the following circumstances concur:<\/p>\n

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          1. \u00ba Scaling<\/li>\n
          2. \u00ba Breakage of wall, ceiling or floor, or fracture of door or window.<\/li>\n
          3. \u00baFracture of cabinets, chests or other types of closed or sealed furniture or objects, or forcing their locks or discovering their keys to steal their contents, whether at the place of the robbery or outside the same.<\/li>\n
          4. \u00ba Use of false keys.<\/li>\n
          5. \u00ba Disabling of specific alarm or guard systems.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
            Article 239.<\/h5>

            They will be considered false keys:<\/p>\n