Policing, Sexuality, and Gender. Feminism Between Critique of Power and Punitiveness
by Jenny Künkel
The police remains a hetero-masculine institution. Perpetrators, prisoners, and victims of (police) violence are predominantly male. Sexual violence, however, mostly affects women and trans people, and the “ideal victim” (N. Christie) and fear of crime are regarded as female. Policing and punishment are gendered. Particularly in public spaces, sexual and gender “deviance” is marginalized and controlled. In private life, sexual violence was of little interest until feminist battles changed this. This introduction aims to give an overview over these issues and the categories conveying power structures within policing. Nevertheless, the manner in which they are addressed must be analyzed from a perspective critical of power, since protecting women and children has been used in expansion of control. Summaries weiterlesen →
On Abolishing the Police Problem
by Benjamin Derin and Michèle Winkler
Against the background of the current debate on “Defund the police“, this introductory article discusses different critical perspectives on the police in Germany that focus on police use of force, racist practices of control, right-wing tendencies within the police, the expansion of police powers, or the increasingly police-based response to social issues. The different perspectives yield varying demands and approaches to solutions. Summaries weiterlesen →
The issue of police and right-wing extremism is en vogue in the media. This article demonstrates the connections between three topics: the (lacking) investigative attention paid to right-wing motives; the police approach in dealing with far-right offenders; and the existence of far-right networks and racist attitudes within the police. In the name of combatting right-wing extremism, security authorities are endowed with expanding powers that are insufficiently applied for this purpose but allow for the criminalization of other phenomena labeled as extremism. This gap between institutional expansion and reluctancy towards substantial change explains right-wing attitudes and networks that reach into security authorities, and the exploration and addressing of which has not been politically implementable so far. Summaries weiterlesen →
Daily Policing – Access & Retreat: An Introduction
by Jenny Künkel and Norbert Pütter
Where and how do the police interfere in people’s everyday lives – and when don’t they? Whom do the police serve as resource, who calls the police? But also: where do they spring into action without being called, towards whom do they display a particularly high level of commitment? The outcome shows: the meaning of police in everyday civil life strongly depends onthe subject’s social standing. Summaries weiterlesen →
Diary of Homeland Security: Chronicle of the Corona Pandemic
by the CILIP Editorial Team
The fight against the new Corona virus in Germany entails restrictions of fundamental rights that were beyond imagination until recently. By documenting the developments that took place from 25 February to 15 May 2020, as a civil liberties organisation, we aim to contribute to the complete push back of all these new laws, regulations, and provisions. Summaries weiterlesen →
Looking Ahead Through the Data Jungle. Datafication and Prevention – An Introduction
by Benjamin Derin, Christian Meyer and Friederike Wegner
That governments are interested in data is by no means a new insight. But with advancing digitalization, potential uses for information are reaching new levels – and so is their pursuit by the police. The already large administrative appetite for data is now falling upon a more susceptible society that is increasingly adhering to the dogma of prevention and is redefining its understanding of security and risk. Summaries weiterlesen →
Thematic Focus: Customs – More than a Financial Police
What can and does customs do? An introduction by Eric Töpfer
Customs is not only financial administration, but also a police of the federal government. With its around 40,000 employees, customs therefore plays a central role in the field of internal security. Nevertheless, it is in the shadow of the federal and state police forces and the intelligence services, and civil rights critics are rarely interested in its activities. The article provides an introductory overview of the various tasks and powers and the organization of the customs administration and traces how these have changed over the years. Summaries weiterlesen →
Transformation and Continuity – Four Decades of Critique of “Internal Security”
by Norbert Pütter
Founded in 1978, CILIP is a child of the seventies which were marked by the experience of the fight against terrorism, the occupational bans against left wing people and a technocratic police reform. The subjects and focal points of the journal varied over the years – from protest policing to covert police methods to – once again since 2001 – anti-terrorism. Civil liberties as guiding principles meant not only search for new forms of monitoring of police and intelligence services, but also reflections on alternatives to police or at least a fundamental reform. Summaries weiterlesen →
Anticipatory Tendencies in Criminal Law by Benjamin Derin
The traditional separation of police action into preventive measures according to police law and repressive criminal prosecution according to criminal procedure is becoming increasingly blurred. Today, criminal law too is measured by its ability to prevent crimes. This manifests itself in the constant advancing of anticipatory tendencies in both the material definition of criminal offenses and procedural investigative powers. These developments are accompanied by a progressive loss of suspects’ rights. Summaries weiterlesen →
Not a state of emergency – an introduction
by Heiner Busch
Fifty years after the passage of the emergency laws, domestic military operations have once more appeared on the political agenda, and counter-terrorism is used to legitimize the arming of police forces with new weaponry. The shift in the relationship between police and the military initially became visible during deployments abroad. However, it does not adhere to the concept of a state of emergency – dreamt up as the combating of insurgencies – that shaped the development of the governmental apparatus of force in the Federal Republic of Germany. Summaries weiterlesen →
Seit 1978 Berichte, Analysen, Nachrichten zu den Themen Polizei, Geheimdienste, Politik „Innerer Sicherheit“ und BürgerInnenrechte.
