Coercion Lawyer Spain: Expert Criminal Defense

The crime of coercion (Art. 172 of the Spanish Criminal Code) is one of the most recurrent offences in forensic practice and paradoxically one of the least understood. The protected legal interest is the freedom to act: the fundamental right of every person to do what the law does not prohibit and not to be forced to do what they do not want. The provision punishes whoever "without being legitimately authorized, prevents another with violence from doing what the law does not forbid, or compels them to do what they do not want, whether right or wrong". Consolidated Supreme Court case-law has extended the concept of "violence" not only to physical force on persons but also to psychological intimidation and the so-called vis in rebus (violence on things with a coercive result): breaking a lock, disabling a vehicle or blocking access to premises.

The Criminal Code provides several methods of commission with different gravity. The basic coercion of Art. 172.1 covers most cases: preventing or compelling with violence. The minor coercion of Art. 172.3 sanctions acts of lesser entity. Particularly relevant is the real estate harassment of Art. 172.1 third paragraph, introduced by LO 5/2010 to punish those who carry out hostile acts against legitimate tenants to force them to leave the dwelling (utility cuts, unnecessary annoying works, repeated vexations). Forced marriage (Art. 172 bis) and stalking (Art. 172 ter), added in the 2015 reform, constitute specific types with autonomous penalties. Coercion within an intimate partner relationship is subsumed under the aggravated regime of gender violence (Art. 172.2) where its requirements are met.

Penalties vary substantially. Basic coercion carries 6 months to 3 years' prison or 12 to 24 months' fine; when committed to prevent the legitimate exercise of a fundamental right, the penalty is imposed in its upper half. Real estate harassment adds a 6 to 24 months' fine. Forced marriage punishes with 6 months to 3.5 years' prison or 12 to 24 months' fine. Stalking, 3 months to 2 years' prison or fine. Coercion aggravated by gender violence imposes 6 months to 1 year prison, community service, weapon prohibition and special disqualification from parental authority. Minor coercion under Art. 172.3 is sanctioned only with 1 to 3 months' fine.

Technical defense in coercion rests on four axes consistently confirmed by case-law. The first is the absence of typical violence: where the conduct lacks physical force, serious intimidation or effective vis in rebus, it falls outside the type. Repeated calling, persistent requesting or expressing unpleasant opinions does not amount to coercion. The second axis is the legitimacy of the act: exercising one's own right (recovering possession after eviction, exercising parental authority) is not coercion even if it causes discomfort. The third is the state of necessity or conflict of rights: where the subject acts to preserve a higher legal interest, Art. 20.5 CP excludes unlawfulness. And the fourth is requalification to minor coercion or, where appropriate, to civil or administrative infraction, when the conduct lacks the entity required for the serious type.

In current forensic practice, coercion is concentrated in three major contexts: real estate conflicts (lock changes, utility cuts on defaulting tenants, occupations and re-occupations), couple crises (preventing departure, removing the phone, controlling social relations) and neighborhood or community disputes (access blockades, deliberate noise as retaliation, vehicle sabotage). Law 12/2023 on the Right to Housing and the most recent Supreme Court case-law on real estate harassment have toughened the criminal response against "blockbusting" and pressure strategies by vulture funds on vulnerable tenants. At Alonso Sala we intervene with the same technical rigour both in defense and as private prosecution, articulating communications expert evidence, camera analysis and chronological reconstructions that allow the tribunal to distinguish typical conduct from mere social or civil conflict.