Antragsdelikt
In the criminal law of some countries with a law (legal system)|civil law system], an Antragsdelikt, "no trial without a complaint", is a category of offense which cannot be prosecuted without a complaint by the victim. The same concept has been adopted in Japanese law under the name shinkokuzai, in South Korean law under the name chingojoe, in the law of Taiwan using various terms, in Dutch law under the name klachtdelict, in Belgian law under the name klachtmisdrijf/crime de plainte, in Finnish law under the name asianomistajarikos and in Indonesian law under the name delik aduan.
Basic definition
The term comes from the German language words Antrag and Delikt. Antragsdelikte are similar to in definition to Ermächtigungsdelikte. For example, in Austria the latter category includes such offenses as trespassing or fraud committed in an emergency situation. The victim's consent is required for investigation of an Antragsdelikt to begin; no such consent is required in the case of an Ermächtigunsdelikt, though the prosecutor will inform the victim. In both cases, actual prosecution of the offense will only proceed with the consent of the victim. Another term is Privatklagedelikte.Antragsdelikt is somewhat analogous to the concept of a compoundable offense in Thai law, though different from that synonymous term in Malaysian law or Singaporean law.
Germany
In contrast to Offizialdelikte, major crimes are those which the prosecutors will investigate and bring charges with or without a victim's complaint; Antragsdelikte are minor criminal offences that will only be prosecuted under German law if the victim files a "Strafantrag" within a certain deadline.The German Criminal Code lists the following as offenses which will only be prosecuted on request:
- Unlawful entry
- Violation of instructions during supervision of conduct
- Defamation
- Violation of privacy and personal secrets
- Domestic theft
- Taking without owner's consent
- Energy theft
- Unlawfully offering an advantage
- Thwarting of distraint
- Unlawful retaking of pawned goods
- Poaching of fish
- Acts committed under intoxication where the intoxication causes diminished responsibility
- Breach of fiscal secrecy
- Statutory rape, if the victim is between 14 and 16 years old and the offender older than 21
- Exhibitionism
- Violation of privacy and personal secrets
- Battery
- Negligent battery
- Child abduction
- Stalking
- Theft and embezzlement of low-value items
- Corruption and bribery in business transactions
- Property damage
- Unlawful alteration of data
- Computer sabotage
Japan
The concept of shinkokuzai first entered into Japanese law in the early Meiji period. The 1870 criminal code Shinritsu Kōryō, though it did not use the term directly, stated that the prosecution of a number of violent offenses between husband and wife depended on a complaint by the person in question. The phrase used to express this condition, mizukara tsugeru wo mate, is probably the origin of the modern term shinkokuzai; mizukara tsugeru contains two of the same kanji used to write shinkokuzai. The draft criminal code of November 1877 used the term shinkokuzai directly in the definitions of various offenses. Under modern Japanese law, before July 13, 2017, sexual offenses such as rape or indecent assault were categorized as shinkokuzai, lest a prosecution against the victim's will result in secondary victimization or infringement of privacy.South Korea
In South Korea, the following offenses are categorized as chingojoe:- Criminal adultery
- Defamation against a dead person, and
- Contempt of court
Republic of China
Before 1949
The term qīngàozuì was used in laws in China's early Republic era, for example in the 1921 Criminal Procedure Ordinance or the 1928 Criminal Procedure Law. However, in modern terminology, the concept of a crime for which there will be no trial without complaint is usually expressed as gàosunǎilùn zhī zuì.Taiwan
The , inherited from the Republic of China, uses the term . There are currently five offenses in this category, all of which are minor offenses against individuals: insult, defamation, infringement of freedom of marriage, maltreat and ordinary embezzlement. However, the Criminal Code does state that any such offense resulting in serious consequences is prosecutable without complaint.A 1999 amendment to Taiwan's Criminal Code removed indecent assault and rape from this category, In 2003, another amendment removed cybercrime from this category and penalties were increased, likely as a response to the CIH computer virus incident where prosecutors were unable to charge the perpetrators involved because no victims came forward with a lawsuit.