About the preventive effect of not knowing

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About the preventive effect of not knowing. Unreported Numbers, Norms and Punishments is a text from a lecture by the German sociologist Heinrich Popitz from 1968, which is counted among the basic criminological texts . In it, the hypothesis is made that the number of unreported standard stabilizing force has. If all deviations from the norm were known, the norm system would be weakened. If all breaches of norms were punished, the norm system would collapse and with it society .

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Initially, Popitz named the basic sociological assumption, which goes back to Émile Durkheim and George Herbert Mead , that the punitive reaction to a breach of norms is not directed solely against an individual, but also strengthens the cohesion and solidarity of the collective by jointly rejecting a deviator, outsider or aggressor.

Then he quotes passages from the glossary On Being Found out by the English narrator William Makepeace Thackeray , which begin with the sentence: "Imagine that everyone who commits an injustice is discovered and punished accordingly." Thackeray describes one below utopian society in which everyone knows everything about everyone, resulting in an unending succession of punishments. Popitz comments on the gloss with the statement: “This society, which he describes, is extremely unpleasant, but fortunately we do not have to fear that we will get into it. It is an "impossible society". "

He then justifies the impossibility of such a society with the fact that three assumptions by Thackeray are questionable ("impossible"):

  • The psychological impossibility of enforcing total behavioral information, in such a society there would be no secrets.
  • The organizational impossibility of implementing total behavioral information would require an absolute system of informers and compulsory confession.
  • No social system of norms would survive complete information on deviant behavior undamaged: “A society that uncovered every behavior deviation would at the same time ruin the validity of its norms. (...) Standard breaks are unavoidable. But it is avoidable - and it is always avoided - that they all come to light. "

According to Popitz, sanctions can only fulfill their protective functions if they are quantitatively limited to a certain margin that is less than is commonly assumed. The non-discovery of norm breaks is essential for relieving the sanction system: "If the norm is no longer or too seldom sanctioned, it loses its teeth - if it has to constantly bite, the teeth become blunt."

In summary, Popitz claims that the punishment can only maintain its social effect as long as the majority of people do not get what they deserve, because otherwise the legal system would collapse.

Criminological meaning

The Popitz script confirms Durkheim's classic assumption that crime is functional to a certain extent for the integration of a society. You just have to remain an exception in the public consciousness. Daniela Klimke and Aldo Legnaro emphasize that Popitz questioned the everyday theoretical certainty according to which norm breaks should be uncovered as numerous as possible. He takes the shudder from the dark field and ignorance by analyzing them as a necessary condition of society. A complete disclosure of the deviance would disturb the illusion of norm validity and thus the basis of sociability .

expenditure

  • About the preventive effect of not knowing. Dark figure, norm and punishment . Mohr (Siebeck), Tübingen 1968.
  • About the preventive effect of not knowing . With an introduction by Fritz Sack and Hubertreiber , Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3-8305-0522-8 .
  • About the preventive effect of not knowing . In: Heinrich Popitz, Social Norms . Edited by Friedrich Pohlmann and Wolfgang Eßbach, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 978-3-518-29394-2 , pp. 158-174.
  • Heinrich Popitz. About the preventive effect of not knowing. Dark number, Norm and Strafe, Tübingen 1968, JCB Mohr, in an abridged version . In: Daniela Klimke and Aldo Legnaro , Criminological Basic Texts . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-06503-4 , pp. 33-46.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Popitz gave the lecture "On the preventive effect of ignorance" in the context of a lecture series "On the unity of law and political science" on January 23, 1967 at the University of Freiburg .
  2. ↑ The presentation is based on: Heinrich Popitz, On the preventive effect of not knowing . In: Ders., Social Norms . Edited by Friedrich Pohlmann and Wolfgang Eßbach , Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 978-3-518-29394-2 , pp. 158-174.
  3. ^ Heinrich Popitz, About the preventive effect of ignorance . In: Ders., Social Norms . Edited by Friedrich Pohlmann and Wolfgang Eßbach, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2006, pp. 158–174, here p. 164.
  4. ^ Heinrich Popitz, About the preventive effect of ignorance . In: Ders., Social Norms . Edited by Friedrich Pohlmann and Wolfgang Eßbach, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2006, pp. 158–174, here p. 171.
  5. ↑ Jens Christian Müller-Tuckfeld, criminal law and the production of recognition. In: Kai Bussmann and Reinhard Kreissl (eds.), Critical Criminology in Discussion. Theories, analyzes, positions . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1996, ISBN 978-3-531-12740-8 , pp. 123-169, here p. 158.
  6. ↑ Daniela Klimke and Aldo Legnaro , Kriminologische Grundlagentexte . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-06503-4 , p. 33 f.