NCJ Number
91334
Date Published
1983
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This discussion of criminology in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) considers the legal and social framework of research, the institutionalization of criminological research, criminological associations and publications, crime trends, and the future of criminology.
Abstract
Recently, the criminal law of the FRG has moved in the direction of utilitarianism as a rationale for rehabilitating offenders. Conflicts and competing claims between the empirical sciences and the legal scholars have retarded the development of criminological research in the FRG. Criminological research centers and institutional concentrations are located largely within the university system. In the nonuniversity area, criminological research has encountered comparatively greater difficulties in becoming institutionalized. Important associatioss and institutions dealing with criminological problems include the Society for Comprehensive Criminology, which holds workshops for scientists and practitioners on acute criminological problems, and the German Criminological Association, which also regularly organizes workshops. In spite of the quality of several research works, the results overall have been meager, being related to narrow and restricted areas of criminology. Criminological thinking has tended recently to become more dynamic and more 'interactionist' in approach. Attention has focused on offender-victim relationships, on relationships between reported and unreported crimes, patterns of police behavior, and private crime control. Fourteen notes and 24 bibliographical listings are provided.