Research projects conducted
Evaluation of the Hamburg Resocialization and Victim Assistance Act (HmbResOG)
Contact: Sarah Supplitt
The Hamburg Resocialization and Victim Assistance Act (HmbResOG) came into force on 1 January 2019. It provides a binding and interdepartmental framework for structuring the transition management of prisoners awaiting release. At the heart of this is the interlinking of the resocialization measures of the prison system with the support services offered by the criminal justice system. The combination of inpatient and subsequent outpatient support is intended to improve the conditions for the reintegration of released prisoners into society and thus bridge the first six months after release, which are considered particularly critical in terms of resocialization. At the same time, the law combines the central resocialization mandate with the topics of victim support and prevention. The evaluation is being carried out on behalf of the Hamburg Justice and Social Welfare Authority and is being supported by the Department for Youth Protection and Offender Support of the Social Welfare Authority, the Specialist Office for Offender and Court Support and the Criminological Service of the Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. The aim is that at the end of the project period, possible legal policy conclusions will be drawn from the summary of legal dogmatic and legal factual research results and any legal or actual need for optimization will be identified.
Final report published on June 16, 2024.
The (re)integration of ex-prisoners into the labor market
Contact: Julia Biastoch
As the (re)integration of ex-prisoners into the labour market is considered an important prerequisite for future legal probation, the development of vocational skills is an integral part of the prison concept geared towards resocialization. Due to low employment rates and high recidivism rates directly following release, transition management is now gaining importance in the criminological discourse. There is a considerable need for improvement. The aim of this dissertation project is therefore to develop a two-stage concept that best promotes reintegration into the labor market through innovations in prison work and transition management.
Prevention and management of corruption in international corporations
Contact: Alexander Baur
A large number of different anti-corruption regulations exist worldwide, some of which apply in parallel. The project aims to record these and explore the possibilities and limits of legal policy harmonization using a legal-normative and legal-statistical research approach. In addition, the project aims to provide companies and law enforcement authorities with a roadmap to help them meet the challenges of different legal requirements as effectively as possible. The project pursues an interdisciplinary approach and examines the problem area from the perspectives of corporate and criminal law as well as criminology. The universities of Augsburg (Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Kubiciel), Bonn (Prof. Dr. Jens Koch and Dr. Philipp Maximilian Holle) and Hamburg/Göttingen (Prof. Dr. Alexander Baur) are responsible for the project. Duration: May 2020 to December 2022; funded by the KBA-NotSys Integrity Fund/Switzerland.
Evaluation of inpatient social training in youth detention (especially in so-called “warning shot detention”) in Baden-Württemberg
Contact: Ursula Gernbeck
The state of Baden-Württemberg took the introduction of the highly controversial warning shot detention in 2013 as an opportunity to take a further step towards transforming detention into inpatient social training. For example, social training courses tailored to the special needs of this group of juvenile offenders were set up in the youth detention centers in Göppingen and Rastatt. The evaluation of the pilot project will examine, among other things, the specific characteristics of the group of warning shot offenders, whether they can be reached by the inpatient social training and how recidivism develops after release from warning shot detention.
Homicide of newborns and the possibility of confidential births
Contact: Sophie Marsch
With the aim of preventing infanticide, the legislator passed the Act on the Expansion of Assistance for Pregnant Women and the Regulation of Confidential Birth, which came into force on May 1, 2014 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 3458). Whether the option of confidential birth can actually contribute to this, however, has so far been largely unexplored due to the topicality of the legal regulation. As part of the project, the law in question is to be investigated from a civil law perspective on the one hand, and on the other hand the actual legal situation with regard to the intended preventative effect in its criminal law and criminological aspects.