NCJ Number
225456
Journal
Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: 2008 Pages: 42-58
Date Published
2008
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the population of Russian origin in German prisons.
Abstract
This study notes that many German prisons host ethnically separate communities of Russian German migrants, and the prison staff have certain problems to keep them under control. The biggest problem noted was control of Russian-style prisoner communities by inmate leaders, who impose certain rules of the Russian prison culture on their peers, making it very difficult for staff to deal with inmates. This article describes the societal developments that led to this problem and articulates the actual situation in prisons. Discussion is provided on norm conflicts and violence of young males who migrated from the countries of the former Soviet Union to Germany and Israel. The Russian prison communities were compared with the version that is implemented in Germany, and the information in the article was derived from scholarly insights along with interviews conducted with 9 inmates and 40 non-inmates in Germany. Figure and references