An Editorial Comment
by Otto Diederichs
While CILIP’s readers languish along the world’s summer beaches and streetside cafes, our editorial staff eschewed no pain or effort to get the next special focus issue of CILIP into the mail by the end of vacation. Our special focus in this issue is „organized crime“. On July 24th, the German cabinet finally agreed on a compromise version of Act for Fighting Organized Crime which means that it will go into effect in the very near future. This will now signal termination of a debate that has occupied the Federal Republic for nearly three decades: Is there organized crime in the Federal Republic of Germany? This legislation will hardly end the debate on this subject. CI-LIP’s special focus issue is an attempt to contribute to that debate. A contro-versial issue.
The Debate on Organized Crime in the FRG
by Heiner Busch
The debate over organized crime began in the early 70’s primarily as an internal police discussion. This had been preceded by a larger debate on crime in general as result of rising registered crime rates in the FRG. From the very beginning, experts both within the police as well as on the outside are in general agreement on the fact that „syndicated organized crime“ as it can be found in the USA does not exist in the FRG. This, however, has by no means led to an and of the debate. The author provides a survey of the 20-year-old debate.
Organized Crime’s Influence on Politics, Public Administration and the Economy
by Werner Vahlenkamp
In their attempts to estimate the growth of organized crime in the Federal Republic by the year 2000, well-known police, legal and scientific experts generally proceed from the assumption that organized crime’s influence on politics and public administration will increase significantly. Some individu-ales even warn that by this time a perceptible subversion of state and society will already have taken place. Gradually, this process could lead to a cree-ping erosion of administrative morals, involving in the long run the possible creation of mafia-like structures similar to those encountered in Italy.
A qualitatively different type of organized crime influence is taking place in the field of the economy. Here, it is not corruption which is taking place, but rather infiltration. These theses constitute the central arguments presented by the author, an official of the Federal Crime Bureau.
Getting High on General Prevention
by Heiner Busch
In the war on drugs fake sales and purchases in sting operations carried out by undercover agents or police informers have become standard operating procedures. This pertains both to traffic on the domestic market in Germany as well as to international trafficking at the wholesale level. If a fake offer is made on foreign soil and if the goods are transported over national borders under police control, then this is referred to as a „controlled delivery“. In 1988/89 the Bavarian State Crime Bureau organized such a controlled delive-ry of cocaine from Latin America into the FRG. One of the figures involved in the operation was a „shady“ contact. The results were remakrable: 658 kilograms of cocaine were confiscated and a whole ship’s crew was convic-ted. The purported European manager of the Medellin cartel was set free and hasn’t been seen since.
International Trafficking in Women in the Federal Republic of Germany
by Tippawan Duscha
There is a tremendous demand for foreign sex workers in the Federal Republic of Germany. In major cities such as Hamburg, Frankfurt on the Main or Berlin more than 50% of all prostitutes are foreigners. The range of nationalities is growing constantly. Often these women are recruited under false pretenses, i.e. they are promised employment in services such as waitressing, cleaning, etc. Such trade is a crime according to 181 of the German Criminal Code. This, however, does not cover trading with domestic personnel or marriage candidates. Both of these activities are legal according to German law. The author, a graduate social worker from Thailand and co-founder of the „Working Group Against International Sexual and Racist Ex-ploitation“ (Arbeitsgemeinschaft gegen internationale sexuelle und rassis-tische Ausbeutung e. V.“ (agisra)) provides this introduction to international women trafficking.
Witness Protection
by Otto Diederichs
For several years now both police and state’s attorneys profess to observe an increase in the reluctance of potential witnesses to testify in criminal investi-gations and/or trials due to fear of repraisals by suspects and/or defendants. In 1988, the police reacted by developing a special witness protection pro-gram. The protection provided ranges, depending on the degree of potential danger, from advice and counselling in proper ways of behaving to providing new identities. According to the latest statistic provided by the Federal Cri-minal Bureau, the protection program was employed in a total of 330 cases throughout the FRG.
Remarks on the „Draft Proposal for an Act for Fighting Organized Crime“
by Edda Weßlau
Regular observers of the legal discussion concerning „public safety“ get an uneasy feeling when proposed legislation includes organized crime in its name as one of its main goals. Whenever questionable expansions of police and state’s attorneys were the goals or a „third dimension“ of the fight against crime – euphemistically referred to as profit-taking – the key argu-ments were the perilous increase in organized crime and the necessity of developing and implementing new methods of fighting.
The draft proposal for an „Organized Crime Act“ – as the official abbrevia-tion calls it includes the following specific proposals:
– introduction of property penalties and confiscation of properities gained through criminal activity,
– upgrading selected typical activities to the status of crimes which would result in making meetings, preparatory activities and attempted activities cri-minal acts in and of themselves,
– making money laundering a crime,
– legalizing so-called undercover investigating methods,
– witness protection measures, etc.
Business Crime Control
by Bernhard Gill
„Capital Crimes“ – as defined by the organization „Business Crime Control“ which was founded in March of 1991 – include not only illegal activities, but all business practices detrimental to society and the environment, as they occur in the daily practice of business. Often, these practices are treated as gentlemen’s offences or their prosecution is even prevented for political reasons. In establishing their documentation center, the organization hopes to make a significant contribution to increasing public awareness of the problem and to aid the media in providing more systematic reporting on such crime. A portait of the organization is provided.
The Constitutional Guard and Organized Crime
by Otto Diederichs
One of the few instances in which an intelligence agency has reacted not only quickly, but also drawn analytically correct consequences may be witnessed as one of the spin-off effects of German unification. At the centers of power within the Constitutional Guard and the Federal Intelligence Agnecy it was immediately recognized that the demise of the „threat from the East“ would case some cracks to appear in their own justification for existence. The standard justification of the past, namely of fighting a defensive war against communism’s striving for world hegemony, is hardly a convincing argument anymore. Thus, new goals and tasks had to be found. It is now hoped in these circles that these may be found in the war against organized crime. Yet such a development would be devastatingly dangerous, since these intel-ligence agencies would not be bound to the legality principle of intervening once crimes have been committed – as is the case with Germany’s police, now responsible for this task.
The End of the „Schmücker Proceedings“
by Harald Remé
On the night of the 4th to the 5th of June 1974, the student Ulrich Schmücker was shot in the Berlin Grunewald forest. In February of 1976, the trial involving that murder was convened in the Berlin State Court in the Moabit district of Berlin. What initially began as a normal murder trial, quickly became the longest and most scandal-burdened criminal proceedings in the history of the German courts. A total of four different proceedings with a total of 591 days in court were necessary until, on January 28th, 1991, a juvenile court chamber at the State Court in Moabit finally summoned up the courage to put an end to the proceedings due to insurmountable obstructions of justice. The author, one of the defense counsel in these proceedings, summarizes the reasons for this action.
Police Aid for the Torture Regimes in the Third World
by Dieter Schenk and Manfred Such
Until now the FRG has provided development aid in the field of public safety to a total of more than 52 torture regimes in the Third World. More than half a billion marks have been spent within the past few years alone for training and equipment. This does not include the equipment aid which had been given to Turkey under the auspices of NATO aid. The authors provide a brief sketch of the effects of such aid for the people of these countries.
What Do the Police Cost?
by Uwe Höft
What the police really cost belongs to those secrets most closely kept when discussing „public safety“. The author, police affairs expert of the Greens/AL in Berlin, analyzed and compared the 1990 police budgets in the old FRG states. In that year a total of 13,68 billion marks were spent on the police and the Federal Border Guard. This amounts to a pro-capita average of 223,70 marks.