Partners in Colombian Criminal Law: Analysis from Constitutional Jurisprudence

Abstract

This research work addresses from a qualitative approach with bibliographic and jurisprudential review, the analysis and development of the concept of co-participants in Colombian law. Co-participation is a different figure from the participants referred to in article 30 of the criminal legislation, since acting in co-participation implies a general cause of greater punishability that entails, co-delinquency or criminal cooperation, that is, people who, as authors or participants concur in carrying out the punishable conduct to allude to the concurrence or intervention of several people in the commission of the crime. It is not possible to refer to criminal co-participation in multisubjective crimes, since, in this event, there is no concurrence of people in the punishable conduct. The constitutional jurisprudence and the jurisprudence of the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice have been clear in identifying the differences between the figure of the participants and the co-participants in criminal matters, since the Legislator makes use of the expression "participant" or the expression “co-participation” to name those who concur in a plural way to carry out the crime, in any of the two general modalities contemplated by the Legislator (perpetrators and participants).