The “Kriminologisches Journal” (KrimJ) is a quarterly scientific journal which is published by Beltz-Juventa. The journal features original scientific articles, discussion papers, practice and research reports on criminological theory and practice in German and English language. The thematic focus is on critical approaches to the structures and measures of social control bodies. All manuscripts undergo selective editorial and peer-review assessment prior to acceptance for publication. The peer-review process is strictly anonymous.
The “Kriminologisches Journal” is available both in print and online. Single issues and subscriptions are available at Beltz Juventa.
Issue 4/2021
Issue 4/2021
Content
Full papers
Als Kriminalität eine Biografie bekam. Paradoxien der Konzeptualisierung von Kriminalität in den Kriminalgeschichten
der Spätaufklärung (German)
When crime acquired a biography. Paradoxes of the Conceptualization of Crime in Crime Stories of the Late Enlightenment
Bernd Dollinger
Crime stories (“Kriminalgeschichten”) were established as a special genre of German literature at the end of the 18th century. They were not primarily juristically oriented but pursued the aspiration of an authentic portrayal of perpetrator personalities and their backgrounds. Historical research has reconstructed the separation of moral and legal evaluation categories associated with these stories, as well as the resulting paradoxes. In this contribution, this notion is taken further through an analysis of exemplary stories to the perspective that crime stories consolidated a biographical view of crime and perpetrators, which was also accompanied by paradoxes.
Diagnosen im Außendienst. Formen der Aneignung und Verwendung psychiatrischen Wissens in der Sozialen Arbeit (German)
Diagnoses in the field. Forms of appropriation and application of psychiatric knowledge in social work
Martin Harbusch & René Pingel-Rathke
The current article will trace the uses of the concept of “mental disorders” in the field of social work using an interview-based study. The aim is to demonstrate how social workers deal with psychiatrically organized ideas of normality and deviation in their everyday work. Social work professionals are at the forefront of the everyday reproduction of psychiatric orders of knowledge; they are key figures in actively contributing to the success (or failure) of psychiatric interpretations of disrupted social situations as they, through their work, may (or may not) convert social connections as psychiatric ones. The results of this study extend the classic sociological critique of psychiatry by showing in which ways psychiatric categories are taking on increasing contemporary importance in fields outside of psychiatry itself and into everyday life-worlds.
Extremismusprävention im Spannungsfeld von Sicherheit und Safeguarding – Eine Diskussion des britischen Prevent-Programms (German)
Extremism prevention between security and safeguarding – a discussion of the British Prevent Programme
Sally Hohnstein & Carmen Figlestahler
Current criminological debates vividly discuss interconnections between security, prevention, and pre-crime orientations. Especially in the field of Islamist extremism prevention tensions arise from the interaction of security and social care. For the discussion of connections between security as well as social work logics, a close look at the British prevention programme Prevent is very instructive, which has been established 2006 as one of the first European national programmes for the prevention of extremism with a special focus on security-related politics. Experiences made with Prevent in Britian can valuably contribute to German professional debates. Therefore, the programme and its differing logics shall be critically examined in the following.
Überlegungen zu einer Kriminologie des Digitalen (German)
Preliminary considerations on a criminology of the digital
Georgia Stefanopoulou
In the last few years there has been increasing discussion about whether “Cybercriminology” needs to be established in the course of digitalization as a new subject area in criminology. The following text points out that we need something more than just a kind of „Cybercriminology“, which focuses on the conditions and the specifics of Internet crime. What we need is a comprehensive “Criminology of the digital” that takes into account the social transformations caused by digitalization as a whole and processes them in connection with the phenomenon of deviation and the mechanisms of social control and prevention. The focus of this new discipline should be the systemic character of the digital network as a crime-generating macrostructure as well as the new behavior control techniques of data tracking and data rating.
In Discusson
Zum Aufbau eines Zentrums für Analyse und Forschung beim Inlandsgeheimdienst/„Verfassungsschutz“ (German)
On the establishment of the Centre for Analysis and Research by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Ursula Birsl (Philipps University Marbug), Peter Ullrich (Technical University of Berlin), and Reinhard Kreissl (Vienna Centre for Societal Security) discuss new developments concerning the landscape of German Secret Services with Dörte Negnal and Lars Ostermeier (KrimJ)
Book Reviews
Holger Schmidt: Ungerechtigkeit im Jugendstrafvollzug. Biographische Erkundungen einer sozialmoralischen Gefühlsregung (Grebing)
Annelie Ramsbrock „Geschlossene Gesellschaft. Das Gefängnis als Sozialversuch – eine bundesdeutsche Geschichte“ (Negnal)