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Psychiatric hospital orders (s. 63 StGB) and addiction treatment orders (s. 64 StGB)

Project date range: 1992 -1997

Description

The study collected empirical information on the use of specific "measures of rehabilitation and incapacitation" for offenders with mental disorders and addiction problems in Germany. It focused on both sentencing and execution of these sanctions, especially

  • probation and parole,
  • sequence of enforcement and transfer between prisons and psychiatric hospitals or addiction-treatment institutions,
  • discharge and treatment within the health system,
  • recidivism following release,
  • revocation of suspended measures.

Methods

Data were collected by analysis of 678 court files on cases from West Germany. There were two subgroups for hospital orders (s. 63 StGB) going back to sentencing in 1980 or 1986 and a subgroup for addiction treatment orders (s. 64 StGB). For comparison, a fourth subgroup involved mentally disordered offenders (s. 20 StGB) without any penal sanction.

Results

Indeterminate hospital orders were predominantly made in cases of severe offences against other persons, including murder, assault, sexual offences, arson, and robbery. Of those cases that met the legal criteria for probation (s. 67b StGB), the courts selected less than one third for suspension orders and out-patient treatment. Most sentenced offenders entered a special hospital for psychiatric treatment. In-patients tended to stay in hospital for rather extended periods, 13 % of them for more than ten years.

Addiction treatment was typically ordered for offences such as burglary, robbery, committing offences in a senselessly drunken state (s. 323a StGB), or drug offences. Suspension orders  (s. 67b StGB) were less frequent than for mentally disordered offenders. The length of stay in a treatment institution was almost two years on the average, which is also the legal maximum period for those cases where there is no additional prison sentence.

Publications

  • Dessecker, Axel (1996). Suchtbehandlung als strafrechtliche Sanktion: eine empirische Untersuchung zur Anordnung und Vollstreckung der Maßregel nach § 64 StGB. (Kriminologie und Praxis (KuP); Bd. 19). Wiesbaden: KrimZ. [Online publication via DigiKrimDok]
  • Dessecker, Axel (1997). Straftäter und Psychiatrie: eine empirische Untersuchung zur Praxis der Maßregel nach § 63 StGB im Vergleich mit der Maßregel nach § 64 StGB und sanktionslosen Verfahren. Wiesbaden: KrimZ. (Kriminologie und Praxis (KuP); Bd. 21) [Online publication via DigiKrimDok]