Legal Definitions - Renunciation

Renunciation is when someone who was involved in planning a crime decides to back out and take steps to prevent the crime from happening. This means they repudiate, or reject, their involvement and try to undo any help they gave before the crime was committed.

Let's say a group of friends plan to rob a convenience store. One of the friends starts to feel guilty and decides to renounce their involvement. They tell the others they won't participate and try to convince them not to go through with the robbery. They might also return any stolen items they helped gather or give information to the police to prevent the crime from happening.

This example illustrates how renunciation involves actively trying to prevent a crime from happening, even if the person was initially involved in planning it.