Die Strafbarkeit des Menschenhandels und seiner Ausbeutungsformen: §§ 232-232b StGB

Trafficking in human beings is considered a phenomenon that poses enormous problems for academics and the public. In order to combat trafficking more effectively, German legislators therefore reformed the offences relating to the punishability of human trafficking with effect from 15th October 2016. Due to the (considerably delayed) implementation of the Directive 2011/36/EU of 05.04.2011, the aim of this study was to determine whether human trafficking and its forms of exploitation are effectively sanctioned or not. This work offers a substantiated description of §§ 232–232b of the StGB (Germany’s penal code). In doing so, it meticulously reflects upon the current legal situation and identifies many shortcomings of the penal provisions through the use of proper arguments. The author comes to the overall conclusion that German legislators did not succeed in effectively sanctioning human trafficking due to significant inconsistencies in the content of the reforms they implemented. This has led the author to offer a new legislative proposal in this study.