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- Title
State Power and 'Everyday Criminality' in the German Democratic Republic, 1961–1989.
- Authors
Millington, Richard
- Abstract
Friedrich Engels claimed that the removal of the perceived causes of crime in a society—capitalist economic and societal conditions—would automatically lead to the eradication of crime. This did not prove to be the case in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), where instances of everyday criminality such as theft, robbery and assault never fell below 100,000 per annum throughout the period of the state's existence, from 1949 to 1989. This article examines the ruling Socialist Unity Party's (SED) perceptions of the causes of everyday criminality in the GDR. It shows that the SED concluded that crime persisted because citizens' 'socialist sense of legal right and wrong' (sozialistisches Rechtsbewußtsein) was underdeveloped. The regime measured this by the extent to which citizens supported and participated in socialist society. Thus, crime could be eliminated by co-opting as many citizens as possible into the Party's political project. The SED's ideological tunnel vision on the causes of everyday criminality meant that it dismissed hints about the real causes of crime, such as poor supply and living conditions, identified by its analysts. Its failure to address these issues meant that citizens continued to break the law. Thus, the Party's exercise of power contributed to the creation of limits to that power. Moreover, analysis of opinion polls on GDR citizens' attitudes to criminality shows that they accepted crime as a part of everyday life.
- Subjects
GERMANY (East); CRIME; STATE power; EAST German history; EAST German politics &; government; SOCIAL conditions in Germany
- Publication
German History, 2020, Vol 38, Issue 3, p440
- ISSN
0266-3554
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/gerhis/ghaa048