With the reform of the Spanish Penal Code in 2010, legal entities became criminally responsible for crimes committed within them or by their administrators, as long as these crimes had the purpose of benefiting the organization in some way. Criminal Compliance seeks to identify the specific risks that exist within each organization and promote procedures and tools to neutralize them. Although these programs are not mandatory by law, the Penal Code favors their implementation by appreciating their existence as a mitigating circumstance or even an excuse in the event of opening criminal proceedings.
On the other hand, the evolution of our legislation, influenced by community and international law, tends to demand increasingly detailed responsibilities from legal entities to avoid impunity, so it is acceptable to think that in the near future the implementation of a Criminal Compliance Plan does become mandatory.
The basis of criminal Compliance is the individualization of risks and specific knowledge of each activity, so the measures necessary for a company may be very different from those necessary for an NGO. At Red Jurídica we have worked long and hard with all types of organizations and we have extensive experience working with companies, but also with NGOs, associations and foundations, so we know first-hand their specific way of working and the challenges they face. Both types of organizations face from a criminal point of view.
