Sex in the outdoor pool: Legal traps and high punishments threaten!

Sex in the outdoor pool: Legal traps and high punishments threaten!

In the warm summer months, many people draw in outdoor pools and on swimming lakes where they want to refresh and relax. But these places often become a legally delicate terrain, because sexual acts in public are legally questionable. As lawyer Oliver Allesch explains, such actions can not only fulfill the criminal offense of the "excitation of public annoyance" according to the § 183a StGB in many cases.

The legal consequences are significant: if convicted, if convicted, fines or imprisonment of up to one year are at risk. Even if the fact is not fulfilled, harmless tenderness can already be considered an administrative offense that can result in fines of up to 1,000 euros. In addition, sexual actions in the outdoor pool often violate the house or bathing regulations, which the operators are drawn up and whose disregard can result in an immediate expulsion or house ban.

legal gray areas in changing rooms and on beaches

in changing rooms you move in a legal gray area. As long as the actions are not perceptible to others, there is usually no public excitement. However, the house and bathing regulations also apply here. The regulations are often less clear on public beaches or swimming lakes, since there are often no specific house rules. In these cases, the legal assessment depends on the individual circumstances.

If actions are not observed in public, they could be allowed in principle. But as soon as they are discovered, legal consequences can follow. Everything is recommended to always look at your own behavior from the perspective of possible present. If the suspicion arises that an action could not be okay, it is likely that the border has already been exceeded. From a legal point of view, such acts are therefore advised in these places.

definition and prerequisite of the "excitement of public annoyance"

The guidelines that can lead to the excitement of public annoyance is that sexual acts are public and that feelings of rejection or injury are triggered in third parties. The legal foundations are specified in § 183a StGB where it is said that someone who performs public sexual actions and thus deliberately or knowingly annoyed, is punishable.

The prerequisites of the act are that the observing people have to feel seriously injured and the perpetrator must act intentionally, i.e. have accepted the likelihood of discovery. For example, intimate actions in the car can also be considered a public annoyance if they are observed by a passerby who feels molested by the action.

In Germany, between 7,000 and 8,000 cases of "excitement of public annoyance" are recorded in the police every year, although the number of unreported cases should not be even higher. Sexual criminal law in Germany includes paragraphs 174 to 184h StGB, and despite the strict legal regulations, there are differences in handling compared to other countries such as Austria and Switzerland, where the punishments are different.

With this information, visitors to outdoor pools and swimming lakes can better adjust to the legal framework and avoid unpleasant situations as well as legal consequences.