Family-based crime: Phenomenology and its challenges for crime prevention

Abstract

In Germany, certain extended families of turkish-arabian origin have gained questionable publicity since several members are repeatedly suspected to have committed a large number of serious offences. The presumed characteristics of so-called "clans" are a high degree of family and ethnic isolation of their members from the outside world, distrust of outsiders and lack of integration, their high level of mobilisation in public and their potential for aggression as well as a practised parallel justice system that undermines criminal prosecution. Therefore, their structures are difficult for outsiders to penetrate and conventional crime prevention strategies reach their limits. The question arises as to which approaches and concepts may be suitable for preventive mitigation of family-based crime. There is a lack of fundamental understanding of the phenomenon and evidence-based knowledge of factors that make crime prevention approaches promising in relation to family-based crime. The Criminological Research Unit (KKF), within the State Office of Criminal Investigation of North Rhine-Westphalia (LKA NRW), is conducting a qualitative research project on the prevention of family-based crime. Based on a systematic analysis through literature and database research, the KKF will first identify existing prevention approaches of phenomena similar to family-based crime (e.g. italian mafia, criminal gangs in Malmö) via (inter-)national expert interviews and workshops, followed by a criteria-based analysis of the collected approaches to identify promising mechanisms of successful prevention adaptable to family-based crime. The findings will benefit practitioners in crime prevention to adapt or supplement existing crime prevention concepts for extended families of turkish-arabian origin and promote the implementation new approaches in the field.

Full text

Speaker: Maximilian Querbach and Alexander Werner
Presentation title: Family-based crime: Phenomenology and its challenges for crime prevention
In Germany, certain extended families of turkish-arabian origin have gained questionable publicity
since several members are repeatedly suspected to have committed a large number of serious
offences.
The presumed characteristics of so-called “clans” are a high degree of family and ethnic isolation of
their members from the outside world, distrust of outsiders and lack of integration, their high level of
mobilisation in public and their potential for aggression as well as a practised parallel justice system
that undermines criminal prosecution.
Therefore, their structures are difficult for outsiders to penetrate and conventional crime prevention
strategies reach their limits. The question arises as to which approaches and concepts may be
suitable for preventive mitigation of family-based crime. There is a lack of fundamental
understanding of the phenomenon and evidence-based knowledge of factors that make crime
prevention approaches promising in relation to family-based crime.
The Criminological Research Unit (KKF), within the State Office of Criminal Investigation of North
Rhine-Westphalia (LKA NRW), is conducting a qualitative research project on the prevention of
family-based crime. Based on a systematic analysis through literature and database research, the KKF
will first identify existing prevention approaches of phenomena similar to family-based crime (e.g.
italian mafia, criminal gangs in Malmö) via (inter-)national expert interviews and workshops,
followed by a criteria-based analysis of the collected approaches to identify promising mechanisms
of successful prevention adaptable to family-based crime.
The findings will benefit practitioners in crime prevention to adapt or supplement existing crime
prevention concepts for extended families of turkish-arabian origin and promote the implementation
new approaches in the field.