Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hans-Jörg Albrecht

Director emeritus

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hans-Jörg Al­brecht is a dir­ect­or emer­it­us at the Max Planck In­sti­tute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg/Ger­many, as well as an hon­or­ary pro­fess­or and fac­ulty mem­ber at the law fac­ulty of the Uni­versity of Freiburg. He is a guest pro­fess­or at the Cen­ter for Crim­in­al Law and Crim­in­al Justice at the China Uni­versity of Polit­ic­al Sci­ence and Law and at the law fac­ulties of Hain­an Uni­versity, Ren­min Uni­versity, Wuhan Uni­versity, Beijing Nor­mal Uni­versity, and Dali­an Ocean Uni­versity.

Main Focus

Prof. Al­brecht's re­search in­terests span the breadth of mod­ern leg­al and crim­in­o­lo­gic­al dis­course. His in­terests range from top­ics such as sen­ten­cing the­ory, ju­ven­ile crime and justice, il­leg­al drug policy, and en­vir­on­ment­al and or­gan­ized crime to eval­u­at­ive re­search on the role of crim­in­al justice in trans­ition­al leg­al sys­tems. He has au­thored, co-au­thored, and ed­ited nu­mer­ous works, in­clud­ing volumes on sen­ten­cing, day-fines, re­cidiv­ism, child ab­use and neg­lect, drug policies, and vic­tim­iz­a­tion.

Curriculum Vitae

Born in 1950 in Ess­lin­gen, Ger­many, Prof. Al­brecht stud­ied at the Uni­versity of Tübin­gen and later at the Uni­versity of Freiburg, where he was awar­ded his doc­tor­ate in 1979. In 1991, Prof. Al­brecht com­pleted his post-doc­tor­al lec­tur­ing qual­i­fic­a­tion with a Ha­bil­it­a­tion on crim­in­al law, ju­ven­ile crim­in­al law, crim­in­o­logy, and pris­on law.

Between 1977 and 1991, Prof. Al­brecht worked as a re­search fel­low at the Max Planck In­sti­tute in Freiburg. In 1991, he ac­cep­ted an of­fer to lec­ture crim­in­al law and crim­in­o­logy at the Uni­versity of Kon­stanz. In 1993, he as­cen­ded to the Chair for Crim­in­al Law, Ju­ven­ile Crim­in­al Law, and Crim­in­o­logy at the Uni­versity of Dresden, a po­s­i­tion which he held until 1997 when he re­turned to the In­sti­tute. In 1997, Prof. Al­brecht was ap­poin­ted dir­ect­or at the Max Planck In­sti­tute for For­eign and In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­in­al Law in Freiburg, Ger­many. In ad­di­tion to his po­s­i­tion at the In­sti­tute, he also lec­tures on crim­in­al law, crim­in­al justice, and crim­in­o­logy at the Uni­versity of Freiburg.

In re­cent years, Prof. Al­brecht has been awar­ded the status of guest pro­fess­or at a num­ber of for­eign uni­versit­ies and lead­ing aca­dem­ic re­search cen­ters in­clud­ing the Cen­ter for Crim­in­al Law and Crim­in­al Justice at the China Uni­versity of Polit­ic­al Sci­ence and Law (2000 + 2008), the Col­lege for Crim­in­al Law Sci­ence at Beijing Nor­mal Uni­versity (2015) and the law fac­ulties of Hain­an Uni­versity (2001), Ren­min Uni­versity (2004), Wuhan Uni­versity (2005), Beijing Nor­mal Uni­versity (2006), and Dali­an Ocean Uni­versity (2012).

In 2003, he was be­stowed the hon­or of a life mem­ber­ship at Clare Hall Col­lege, Uni­versity of Cam­bridge, and in 2004 he ac­cep­ted a UT-pro­fess­or­ship and re­ceived per­man­ent fac­ulty mem­ber­ship at the Law Fac­ulty of Qom High­er Edu­ca­tion Cen­ter, Uni­versity of Te­her­an. In 2005, Prof. Al­brecht was awar­ded an hon­or­ary doc­tor­ate from the Uni­versity of Pécs, Hun­gary. In May 2010, Prof. Al­brecht was made an hon­or­ary mem­ber of the Hun­gari­an So­ci­ety of Crim­in­o­logy for his activ­it­ies in the de­vel­op­ment of Hun­gari­an crim­in­o­logy and crim­in­al policy. In Septem­ber 2010, he was ap­poin­ted as an hon­or­ary mem­ber to the Ser­bi­an So­ci­ety of Crim­in­o­logy (SCS). Prof. Al­brecht was awar­ded an hon­or­ary doc­tor­ate from the Grigol Robakidze Uni­versity in Tb­il­isi in May 2012 and an hon­or­ary pro­fess­or­ship from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska Uni­versity in Lub­lin in June 2013. In Septem­ber 2013, the Aca­dem­ic Hon­or Award of the 3rd In­ter­na­tion­al Crime & Pun­ish­ment Film Fest­iv­al was presen­ted to Prof. Al­brecht in Istan­bul for his life-time con­tri­bu­tion to crim­in­o­lo­gic­al re­search on chil­dren and youth. In Septem­ber 2016, Prof. Al­brecht was awar­ded an hon­or­ary doc­tor­ate from the Law En­force­ment Uni­versity in Ulan Bat­or, Mon­go­lia, and in May 2017 he was awar­ded an hon­or­ary doc­tor­ate from the Tech­nic­al Uni­versity in Tb­il­isi, Geor­gia. Also in May 2017, the “2016 In­ter­na­tion­al Edu­cat­or in China Award” by the In­form­a­tion Research Cen­ter of In­ter­na­tion­al Tal­ents, State Ad­min­is­tra­tion of For­eign Ex­perts Af­fairs (SAFEA), P.R. China, was presen­ted to Prof. Al­brecht for his con­tri­bu­tion to Chinese-Ger­man aca­dem­ic co­oper­a­tion and edu­ca­tion.

Prof. Al­brecht was co-initiator and deputy spokes­per­son of the In­ter­na­tion­al Max Planck Re­search School on Re­tali­ation, Me­di­ation and Pun­ish­ment.

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