Der Behandlungsgedanke bei Sexualdelinquenz

The media pay lots of attention to delinquents committing sexual offences. By passing the law of the fight against sexual offences and other dangerous criminal offences from 26th January 1998, the German legislator has provided that all sexual delinquents should be transferred to social-therapeutic institutions. The law was preceded by several sexual offences to minors which had strongly drawn the public"s attention due to the extensive media coverage of those cases. However, whether this measure actually prevents further sexual offences in the sense of preventing recidivism remains doubtful: on the one hand, the legislator has not provided any regulations about what the treatment at the social-therapeutic institutions should comprise. On the other hand, the group of people committing sexual offences is very inhomogeneous and a standardized therapy could by no means be applied to each delinquent successfully. The mere legal provision of the delinquents" transferral does not grant a treatment complying with the therapeutic intention. In fact, it is important to foster the development of treatments for the various types of sexual offenders.