Projects

Doctrinal Structures of Public Security Law

Head of project: Ralf Poscher
This long-term project examines whether it is possible to develop a general doctrinal scheme for public security measures comparable to the general doctrinal schemes (Verbrechenssysteme) of substantive criminal law, how such a scheme would have to be conceptualized, and what functions it could serve in a national and international context.

360º Virtual Scenario Method

Department of Criminology MAXLab Project

Head of project: Jean-Louis van Gelder
The 360º Virtual Scenario Method research program aims to remedy some of the defects of the traditional written scenario (or “vignette”) method by employing immersive 360º video. This immersive method is based on the assumption that the commonly used written scenarios lack contextual detail and are unlikely to capture the more visceral and emotional aspects that surround real-world offending, which commonly occurs during “hot” and altered states of mind.

The Criminal Law of Climate Protest

Department of Criminal Law Project

Heads of project: Tatjana Hörnle, Ivó Coca-Vila
More and more climate activists are opting to break minor laws in order to get maximum exposure for their protests. In fact, a number of climate justice movements—such as Last Generation, Extinction Rebellion, and Ende Gelände—explicitly call for civil disobedience and coercive forms of protest as a way of drawing attention to the catastrophic effects of global warming.

Language Obligations of the Police

Department of Public Law Project

Head of project: Sarah Praunsmändel
In the quest for public security, communication is the most important operational resource used by police. When German police act in a preventive capacity, officers generally speak German while performing their duties. To overcome language barriers, the police may deviate from German, but there is no clear obligation to communicate in other languages.

Scales, law, project description: Legal Perspectives on Acts of Sexual Violence through Condom Deception as a Means of Vitiating Sexual Consent (“Stealthing”)

Legal Perspectives on Acts of Sexual Violence through Condom Deception as a Means of Vitiating Sexual Consent (“Stealthing”)

Department of Criminal Law Project

Head of project: Cristina Valega Chipoco
The outcome of this research project will be a contribution to an edited volume coordinated by the Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) and the Network of Latin American Law Scholars (Red ALAS). The overall aim of the book is to examine condom deception as a form of sexual violence from a legal perspective, focusing on the unique nature of the Latin American and Caribbean contexts.

Conflict Regulation in Germany’s Plural Society

Department of Criminal Law Project

Heads of project: Clara Rigoni, Hatem Elliesie
In the last few years, the informal resolution of disputes within minority groups in Germany has been increasingly criticized and referred to as Paralleljustiz (parallel justice) with a clearly negative connotation. These kinds of alternative mechanisms are often accused of obstructing access to formal justice and of threatening the rule of law.

Adorno’s “Sexual Taboos and Law Today” – Today

Project

Heads of project: Simon Gansinger, Antonia Hofstätter
Published in 1963, Theodor W. Adorno’s “Sexual Taboos and Law Today” constituted a timely intervention in the public debate on changing sexual mores in the 1960s. Critiquing repressive bourgeois morality and progressive sexual values alike, the essay suggests that the utopian potential of intimacy is inseparable from the tension sexuality creates for self and society.

Geographical Behavior of Stranger Offenders

Department of Criminology Project

Head of project: Gunda Wössner
In the vast majority of sex offenses, offender and victim know each other. However, violent sexual assaults perpetrated by strangers often incite strong feelings of fear in the community. Furthermore, rapes by strangers often pose considerable challenges and concern for law enforcement agencies. They are often faced with a multitude of complex and delicate tasks with regard to the handling of these cases.

FutureU

Department of Criminology MAXLab Project

Heads of project: Jean-Louis van Gelder, Esther Mertens
FutureU is a novel and scalable behavioral intervention to increase future-orientation in offenders by connecting them to their future self. The research program, which was started with the (Dutch) Probation Service as a partner and stakeholder, is premised on the well-established notion that delinquents often live like there is no tomorrow because that tomorrow is not cognitively present in their minds.

Virtual Burglary Project

Department of Criminology MAXLab Project

Head of project: Jean-Louis van Gelder
The Virtual Burglary Project is a research program co-headed by Prof. Claire Nee (University of Portsmouth) and involves a collaboration with researchers from Leiden University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The Virtual Burglary Project uses a VR approach to better understand the behavior of residential burglars and to contribute to crime prevention. Data collections occur in Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

DISGRID

Project

Head of project: Hannes Rusch
Opportunities in life in Europe de facto hinge on group memberships that de jure should not matter for individual outcomes – prompting EC president Ursula von der Leyen to press for renewed efforts to answer the question: “Why do racism and discrimination endure in our societies?”

ZuRecht: The Police in an Open Society

Department of Public Law Project

Heads of project: R. Poscher, S. Ellebrecht, St. Jarolimek, St. Kaufmann
Considering Germany’s diversifying society, the question arises whether its police forces can contribute to an open and plural society and how they should be organized. This joint research project involves three leading public security institutions: the Centre for Security and Society at the University of Freiburg; the Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei; and the Department of Public Law at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law.

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