Dangerous sexual offenders: criminal careers and penal sanctions
Project date range: 2005 - 2010
Description
A key question of this project was how the criminal justice system in Germany deals with cases of sexual offenders labelled dangerous. More specifically, the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice have expected courts to extensively evaluate offender personalities and committed offences as well as the offenders’ legal biographies. How have criminal courts implemented these requirements in practice?
Trials and written judgments allow some descriptions and interpretations on how far the courts tend to adopt a therapeutic perspective when applying the criminal law. In addition, the facts of a case as established as a part of a judgment will be a basis for possible offender treatment. Even missing information on personal circumstances (e.g., sexual development) of an offender may be seen as an indication of the limited value associated with these findings by criminal justice professionals.
Method
The study group was composed of offenders sentenced to preventive detention in 1999–2000 on the occasion of a sexual offence. After each offender’s Federal Central Criminal Register record had been collected, several criminal justice files were analysed. This included extensive documents both on the first conviction and the reference judgment as well as a selection of additional sentencing decisions.
Publications
- Elz, Jutta (2011). Gefährliche Sexualstraftäter. Karriereverläufe und strafrechtliche Reaktionen. Wiesbaden: KrimZ. (Kriminologie und Praxis (KuP); Bd. 61)
- Elz, Jutta (2011). Der lange Weg in die Sicherungsverwahrung. Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojekts. In: Bannenberg, Britta & Jehle, Jörg-Martin (Hrsg.). Gewaltdelinquenz. Lange Freiheitsentziehung. Delinquenzverläufe (333-344). Mönchengladbach: Forum Verlag Godesberg. (Download)