Religion, Historical Contingencies, and Institutional Conditions of Criminal Punishment: The German Case and Beyond |
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| Authors: | Joachim J Savelsberg |
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| Institution: | Joachim J. Savelsberg;is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. This article is based on papers presented at the 2002 annual meetings of the American Sociological Association in Chicago and the 1999 annual meetings of the Law and Society Association in Chicago and of the American Society of Criminology in Toronto. I thank anonymous reviewers of Law and Social Inquiry; Juergen Gerhards (Leipzig);Horst Schueler-Springorum and Friedrich Graf (Muenchen);Axel Freiherr von Campenhausen (Goettingen), vice president of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) Church Office;Hermann Barth (Hannover);Katherine Beckett (Seattle);Dario Melossi (Bologna);Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg (Saint Paul);and others who have commented along the way for helpful suggestions or critiques of earlier drafts, and Gerhard Mueller (Erlangen) for access to previously unpublished materials. Comments may be directed to the author via e-mail: . |
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| Abstract: | Religion and historical contingencies help explain cross-national and historic variation of criminal law and punishment. Case studies from German history suggest: First, the Calvinist affiliation of early Prussian monarchs advanced the centralization of power, rationalization of government bureaucracy, and elements of the welfare state, factors that are likely to affect punishment. Second, the dominant position of Lutheranism in the German population advanced the institutionalization of a separation of forgiveness in the private sphere versus punishment of "outer behavior" by the state. Third, these principles became secularized in philosophy, jurisprudence, and nineteenth-century criminal codes. Fourth, partly due to historical contingencies, these codes remained in effect into post–World War II Germany. Fifth, the experience of the Nazi regime motivated major changes in criminal law, legal thought, public opinion, and religious ideas about punishment in the Federal Republic of Germany. Religion thus directly and indirectly affects criminal law and punishment, in interaction with historical contingencies, institutional conditions of the state, and other structural factors. |
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