Christian Pfeiffer

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Christian Pfeiffer (2017)

Christian Pfeiffer (born February 20, 1944 in Frankfurt an der Oder ) is a German criminologist and former director of the Criminological Research Institute Lower Saxony (KFN). From 2000 to 2003 Pfeiffer was Lower Saxony's Minister of Justice for the SPD . He is frequently represented in the media as an interviewee and as a guest on talk shows.

Life

Christian Pfeiffer came to West Germany in 1952, where he grew up in Kirchweidach . After graduating from the Ruperti-Gymnasium Mühldorf am Inn in 1963 and completing military service as a reserve officer candidate , he studied law and social psychology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and at the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1965 to 1971 .

The lawyer received his doctorate in 1984 on the subject of “ crime prevention in juvenile justice ”. In 1985 he was appointed professor of criminology , juvenile criminal law and penal law at the University of Hanover . In 1985 he became deputy director of the KFN, from 1988 to 2015 he was its director.

From 1985 to 1997 Christian Pfeiffer was chairman of the German Association for Juvenile Courts and Juvenile Courts .

From December 2000 to February 2003, Pfeiffer, who has been a member of the SPD since 1969, was Minister of Justice of Lower Saxony ; he replaced Wolf Weber (SPD). With the change of government on March 4, 2003, Elisabeth Heister-Neumann (CDU) succeeded Christian Pfeiffer as Minister of Justice .

Work

Christian Pfeiffer was a professor of criminology, juvenile criminal law and the penal system at the Law Faculty of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University in Hanover .

Pfeiffer was committed to the offender-victim reconciliation as an out-of-court settlement of disputes. Further research foci were victimization experiences , social control theories and " media neglect ".

Right-wing extremism among young people

In 1999, Pfeiffer got at the center of a bitter debate after the Magdeburger Volksstimme published an interview with him in which he made a connection between the authoritarian upbringing in kindergartens in the GDR and the much more frequent xenophobic acts of violence in East Germany .

In 2009 Pfeiffer published a study on the spread of right-wing extremist attitudes among young people. The study came under criticism because of the accusation of politically motivated research and methodological deficiencies, which led to a significant inflation of the numbers.

The "Sebnitz case"

In 2000, an expert opinion prepared on behalf of Pfeiffer contributed significantly to the fact that the so-called Joseph case about the death of six-year-old Joseph Kantelberg-Abdullah in the small Saxon town of Sebnitz as an alleged act by neo-Nazis made headlines three years ago . The report attested the credibility of the mother's statement, who had not been heard up to this point. According to this statement, over 200 residents of the city watched as their son was drowned by right-wing youths in the local open-air swimming pool as part of a so-called " execution ". In the next few days, first Bild and then many other daily newspapers took over the report without further examination and triggered a wave of indignation. After a week, the opposite assumption was confirmed that the child had really had an accident. Up until then, Pfeiffer's report had met with worldwide journalistic feedback and caused concern; the then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had the mother received .

Media consumption and violence

In a report by the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony, the connection between media consumption and violence in children aged 5 to 15 was examined. One hypothesis that was confirmed in the report is among other things: " Hartz IV receivers have most television sets in the household".

In interviews, Pfeiffer repeatedly spoke out against uncontrolled media consumption by children and criticized the inadequate supply of children with all-day school and kindergarten places. In the opinion of critics, this is in contrast to his statements on the subject of “Upbringing in the GDR”, with which he criticized the early separation of child and parents.

In addition to the neurologist Manfred Spitzer, Pfeiffer is one of the sharpest critics of digital entertainment media . In connection with the discussion about “ killer games ”, Pfeiffer said that boys in particular spend many hours playing these games in front of the computer. A correlation between video games and a related propensity for violence on the part of users could not be proven. Pfeiffer noted, however, a direct connection between time-consuming video game consumption and declining performance in school: “The more brutal the games are and the more often you play them, the worse the grades.” He also takes the position “You don't go amok, because you played a brutal computer game. […] But, […]: Playing violent games increases the risk of those at risk who are already on the way to violence. ”Pfeiffer also appeared frequently in the media on this topic. He has often been criticized for his way of reasoning, which many find polemical and shortened.

Pfeiffer is one of the signatories of the Cologne appeal against computer violence , which is particularly controversial among players due to passages such as the following:

“Killer games come from the professional training programs of the US Army, with which shooting technique, accuracy and direct reaction to opponents are trained. The soldiers are desensitized and conditioned to kill, and the inhibition to kill is broken down. In the same way, children and young people are taught special knowledge about weapons and military tactics through killer games [...]. "

- Cologne appeal against computer violence

In order to counteract youth violence, Pfeiffer took the position of dissolving open child and youth work in youth centers and moving the employees to all-day schools . Thereupon a conflict arose in 2006 with the youth welfare workers. In 2015 Pfeiffer established a connection between computer games and the terrorist attacks in Paris .

Media use and school failures

Pfeiffer analyzed the PISA study and came to the conclusion that those groups in the PISA studies performed worst that were characterized by the highest media consumption . See also: Media use by children and young people in Germany

Catholic Church

On June 20, 2011, the German Bishops' Conference unanimously passed the resolution that church employees, under the supervision of a team from the KFN ( Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony ), consisting of retired public prosecutors and judges, should submit all personal files from the past ten years (additionally in nine of the 27 dioceses even up to Year back 1945) should search for evidence of sexual assault . Pfeiffer played a key role in the project as head of the KFN.

The project was canceled on January 9, 2013 by the German Bishops' Conference. The responsible bishop, Stephan Ackermann , gave the main reason for this: "The relationship of trust between the director of the institute (Pfeiffer) and the German bishops has broken." As further reasons, he cited reservations of the network of Catholic priests and canonical requirements for opening "secret archives." “By the bishops. On the same day, Pfeiffer accused the German Bishops' Conference of wanting to censor the abuse study and possibly also forbid the publication of texts from the study.

When Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht found ten years after the abuse scandal on ZDF was uncovered that the state would "use every opportunity to investigate" and that it knew "no secret archives", Pfeiffer demanded that the Federal Government retrieve the abuse files from the Vatican.

Dealing with media requirements and integration issues

Christian Pfeiffer (eighth from left) in the initiative group Open Society Hannover 2017 after a panel discussion in the Lower Saxony State Museum on the question "Which country do we want to be?"

The FAZ took a statement by Pfeiffer at a discussion round about the sexual assault on New Year's Eve 2015/16 as an opportunity to criticize the general guidelines of television editors. According to the FAZ, these asked interviewees not to talk about refugees in connection with the events in Cologne, for example, otherwise the interview would be broken off. Pfeiffer, who is himself a frequently asked interview and talk show guest, had refused such a request and threatened not to conduct the interview. The FAZ saw a mentality in the (general) dealings with interview partners that was fundamentally at odds with journalistic principles. At the same event, Pfeiffer emphasized the results of research on crime statistics among migrants, including those with a Muslim background. It has been known for decades that with increasing language acquisition the crime problems that existed decrease. He therefore called for better funding for appropriate language courses in the municipalities in order to promote integration. But it is completely wrong to lump all Muslims together. There are hardly any problems with the Iranians who immigrated to Germany.

A study that Pfeiffer presented together with criminologists Dirk Baier and Sören Kliem in January 2018, using the example of Lower Saxony, attributed the increase in violence there from 2014 to 2016 mainly to asylum seekers from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia; Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans were noticed much less often. The authors see the difference between the countries of origin as being due, among other things, to the fact that people from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia do not see any chance of a right to stay. In view of this situation, Pfeiffer called for greater investments in a return program and, at the same time, better security of the European external borders.

Work (excerpt)

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Awards

literature

  • Vera de Vries: Christian Pfeiffer in Tigo Zeyen, Anne Weber-Ploemacher (eds.), ´ Joachim Giesel (photos): 100 Hanoverian Heads , Hameln: CW Niemeyer book publishers, 2006, ISBN 978-3-8271-9251-6 and ISBN 3-8271-9251-X , pp. 154f.
  • Angelika Busch, Peter Kniep, Lutz Stratmann , Margot Käßmann , Christian Pfeiffer: Theodor Fuendeling plaque 2013. Award ceremony for Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Pfeiffer , with photos by Rainer Surrey, ed. from the Stock Exchange Association of the German Book Trade Regional Association Lower Saxony-Bremen, [o. O.; Hamburg]: Stock Exchange Association of the German Book Trade Association Lower Saxony-Bremen, 2013
  • Dirk Baier, Thomas Mößle (ed.): Criminology is social science . Festschrift for Christian Pfeiffer on his 70th birthday (=  interdisciplinary contributions to criminological research . Volume 43 ). Nomos, Baden-Baden 2014, ISBN 978-3-8487-1134-5 .

Web links

Commons : Christian Pfeiffer (criminologist)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vera de Vries: Christian Pfeiffer in Tigo Zeyen, Anne Weber-Ploemacher (ed.), ´Joachim Giesel (photos): 100 hannoversche Köpfe , Hameln: CW Niemeyer Buchverlage, 2006, ISBN 978-3-8271-9251-6 and ISBN 3-8271-9251-X , pp. 154f.
  2. ↑ Heidi Niemann: Bliesener replaces Pfeiffer at the KFN. In: Göttinger Tageblatt. March 29, 2015, accessed October 21, 2019 .
  3. ↑ RBB, broadcast Kontraste from March 18, 1999: Right-wing extremism and xenophobia: Is the GDR upbringing to blame?
  4. ↑ Dirk Baier, Christian Pfeiffer, Julia Simonson, Susann Rabold: Young people in Germany as victims and perpetrators of violence . First research report on the joint research project of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the KFN. Ed .: Criminological Research Institute Lower Saxony eV Research Report No. 107 , 2009 ( kfn.de [PDF; accessed October 21, 2019]).
  5. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung : Right-wing extremism among young people. Right-wing extremism among young people - bad, really bad - politics - Süddeutsche.de
  6. ↑ Christian Jakob: Critique of Pfeiffer Study: Dispute over violence among young Muslims. taz Verlags u. Vertriebs GmbH, January 11, 2001, accessed on October 21, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Freda Ataman: Immigrants criticize study on youth violence. Verlag Der Tagesspiegel GmbH, July 31, 2010, accessed on October 21, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Jürgen Dahlkamp, ​​Sven Röbel, Alexander Smoltczyk, Andreas Wassermann and Steffen Winter: The sad days of Sebnitz. In: Der Spiegel. December 4, 2000, accessed October 21, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Investigators on the Joseph case - no right-wing background. Spiegel.de, November 28, 2000, accessed February 25, 2009 .
  10. ↑ City under suspicion | MDR.DE. April 12, 2009, archived from the original on April 12, 2009 ; accessed on January 26, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Use of media: "You don't go amok just because you played a brutal computer game". In: Spiegel Online. January 16, 2011, p. 5 , accessed January 17, 2011 .
  12. ↑ Radical opponents of games want to prevent recognition as a cultural asset. , December 20, 2008, at heise.de
  13. ↑ Michaela Huber , Pauline C. Frei: From darkness to light: Overcoming trauma, illness and nearness to death. Junfermann, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-87387-686-6 , p. 81, limited preview in the Google book search
  14. ↑ Expand youth work instead of relocating to all-day school! Expand youth work instead of relocating to all-day school! ( Memento from June 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Criminologist admits computer games are complicit in terror , Golem.de , November 19, 2015
  16. ↑ Christian Pfeiffer, Thomas Mößle, Matthias Kleimann & Florian Rehbein: The PISA losers - victims of their media consumption . An analysis based on various empirical studies. Ed .: Kriminologisches Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen eV 2007 ( sigmund-schuckert-gymnasium.de [PDF; accessed on October 21, 2019]).
  17. ↑ spiegel.de July 9, 2011: Catholic Church opens personnel files
  18. ↑ zeit.de July 14, 2011: Interview Men are more ashamed
  19. ↑ kath.net DBK ends cooperation with criminological research institute
  20. ^ Bishops' conference stops scientific study , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 9, 2013
  21. ↑ dradio.de Interview with Christian Pfeiffer from January 9, 2013
  22. ↑ Lambrecht criticizes the Catholic Church in the abuse scandal. ZDF, January 31, 2020, accessed on April 14, 2020 .
  23. ↑ "Finally ensure transparency and justice!": Criminologist Pfeiffer demands that the federal government retrieve the acts of abuse from the Vatican and that the church provide comprehensive compensation. In: Messages. Institute for Weltanschauungsrecht, March 13, 2020, accessed on April 14, 2020 .
  24. ↑ For Pfeiffer's statement, see the video of the “Phoenix Round” (title “The New Year's Eve Scandal - Who Is Still Protecting Us?”) From the TV station Min25 on January 7, 2016
  25. ↑ Frank Lübberding: Phoenix on violence in Cologne Nothing went well . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . January 8, 2016, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed January 8, 2016]).
  26. ↑ See video of the “Phoenix Round” (title “The New Year's Eve Scandal - Who Will Protect Us?”) Min. 16 ff
  27. ↑ New study More violent crime due to more immigrants. In: Spiegel Online. January 3, 2017, accessed January 5, 2017 .
  28. ↑ Theodor Fuendeling tag on Christian Pfeiffer: "A friend of book culture". Börsenblatts - weekly magazine for the German book trade, July 22, 2013, accessed on October 21, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Pfeiffer, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German criminologist, former Minister of Justice of Lower Saxony
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt (Oder)