Social Therapy Treatment of Criminal Offenders: A Survey of Pilot Institutions

This article reports on the theory and practice of ten social therapy institutions (sozialtherapeutische Anstalten) for offenders with a high risk of recidivism in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin. On the basis of primarily psychotherapeutic concepts, these institutions have developed different approaches to everyday sociotherapy, largely abandoning traditional therapeutic procedures and involving all the staff in the course of treatment. The results achieved by these institutions are encouraging, but the continuity and further development are being jeopardized because of opposition from criminological and political quarters.