Between Rights and Retribution: Criminal Justice Reform in West Germany, 1949-1980

Abstract

This dissertation examines the transformation of West Germany’s penal philosophy and criminal justice institutions from the 1950s through the 1970s. I argue that the postwar embrace of resocialization represented more than a strategy to reduce recidivism; it constituted a radical redefinition of the criminal’s place within the political community. In recognizing the offender as an autonomous subject rather than as an object of state intervention or medical treatment, West German reformers sought to reconcile their legal policy with the principles of democracy, Sozialstaatlichkeit, and human dignity. Drawing on archival sources, policy debates, and the writings of jurists, criminologists, psychologists, and policymakers, this study traces how the postwar “treatment” paradigm was gradually reconfigured to accommodate a more rights-based conception of criminal justice. While this reorientation did not fully displace older notions of deterrence, retribution, and correction, it did convince many policymakers to endorse the “humanization” of the prison. At the same time, long-standing efforts to classify and “cure” criminality through the scientific management of offenders gradually fell by the wayside as the fields of criminology, psychology, and related disciplines failed to deliver effective tools for reforming offenders, revealing the limits of state power in shaping individuals. Despite mounting skepticism, the commitment to resocialization endured, less because of faith in its practical efficacy than because it had been embedded within a broader discourse of humanization and democratization.