Abstract:
This doctoral dissertation presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative investigation on 250 cases of “probation” imposed by German criminal courts as a condition in combination with a legally valid final “conditional sentence” decision. Initially all cases, as investigated by the police, were filed with the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg prosecution authority (district of Ulm) between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 1993, and then tried by the local adult criminal bench courts of first instance (so-called Schoeffengericht, with 1 professional criminal court judge and 2 lay assessors) and the local juvenile bench courts of first instance (so-called Jugendschoeffengericht, 1 professional juvenile court judge and 2 lay assessors). In a few cases of appeal the final decision was taken by a professional judges´ chamber of the regional court of the district of Ulm. The analyzed cases include also convictions according to section 57 Jugendgerichtsgesetz (JGG =Juvenile Court Law) which is usually referred to as 'pre-probation', and convitions according to section 27 JGG, which means conditionals suspension of imposing a juvenile imprisonment sentence. The dissertation first focuses on getting a detailed understanding of the judicial practice in determining the length of the probation period. In the second step, the courts´ practices of imposing injunctions and directives , their actual implementation, and their influence on the actual duration of the probation period is elucidated. Finally, the dissertation focuses on the effects of the probation instruction on the course of the probation time and the outcome of the procedure in terms of success and/or failure.