NCJ Number
72033
Journal
Kriminalist Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1980) Pages: 24,26-27,29-30
Date Published
1980
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The role of the West German criminal police in maintaining security within the country without undue influence by naive advocates of personal freedom at all costs is described.
Abstract
The author objects vehemently to attacks by liberal romantics on the police, whom they portray as stupid and brutal. Such dreamers fail to recognize the attitude toward crime required to protect citizens on an everyday basis. The liberal belief that crime is the price of freedom has led to such foolish changes as the 1964 reform of the regulations for criminal procedures, which has limited detention and hindered investigations. So many crimes have been decriminalized that even violent crimes appear insignificant. Stricter detention requirements, especially for repeating criminals, and correction programs with less social orientation are deemed essential to protect internal security. Psychologists and social workers are said to be manipulated by prisoners, while prison wardens are held responsible for running a humane prison and for rehabilitating unreformable criminals. The authorities have become too defensive in the face of criticism alleging that they have sacrificed civil rights to control terrorism. As a result, citizens' property losses are rising, and police officers view with disbelief the complex, ineffectual laws which they are expected to enforce. Emphasis must be shifted from the freedom of the criminal to public security. --in German.