KFN is an independent and interdisciplinary research institute which is devoted to research on deviant behavior. The research team currently consists of about 25 scientists from the fields of psychology, social and legal sciences. Since 2017 KFN is organised in five research units, which are based on the three levels of the KFN-building.
The research unit Social change and crime bundles projects that seek the emergence of divergent behavior as a result of social changes. Both the slowly progressing structural change, such as the demographic change, as well as rapid changes that have occurred in the context of reunification, are taken into account. At present, the significant changes in migration flows are of particular importance in this context. The work of the research unit is not restricted to the description of these phenomena. Rather it is necessary to elucidate the conditions and causes of deviations . Therefore the projects can be both fundamentally oriented and application-oriented. The projects of the research unit also address those questions which relate to the importance (or even the function) of crime in general, or the social treatment of deviations.
Social change and crime
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Pericles | Radicalisation within the digital age (RadigZ) | Prejudice-Related Crime | Immigration to Lower Saxony |
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The research unit Cause and prevention of deviant behavior deals with the development of children and adolescents who grow and study under risk conditions, which can protect preventive approaches from the effects of these particular risk profiles. The general concept of successful development is intended to make it clear that the focus is not exclusively on the development of law in the adult age. Rather, other relevant indicators of a positive development are included, such as the link and relationship behavior, cognitive, school and professional development, health and education behavior, and physical as well as mental health status.
Cause and prevention of deviant behavior
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Pro Kind Follow Up | Klasse2000 (Class2000) | Special evaluation of juvenile consumer behaviour and use of addiction preventive offers in Lower Saxony |
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The aim of the research unit Social control and sanctioning is the task and practice of judicial and executive law enforcement institutions, in particular courts, public prosecutors, police and judicial authorities, institutionalized social control (child and youth welfare) and forensic Facilities (regulation of measures). The research unit is linked to earlier research traditions of the KFN by investigations in the research field of the police and the prison system.
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Evaluation of the youth restitution in Lower Saxony Evaluation of forensic psychiatry in Lower Saxony Evaluation of police video surveillance in public places in NRW (§ 15a PolG NRW) |
Crime phenomena are subject to constant change. Social developments and changes in values lead to changes in the legal sanctions catalog. Individual violations of the norms lose their status as a criminal offense and are reduced to administrative offenses or completely deleted from the sanctioning list; in other areas of behavior, new borders develop and new criminal offenses are codified. In particular, the increasing technologicalization of society also encourages completely new forms of behavior, which are experienced as transgressive and need to be regulated normatively (e.g., virtual space such as cyberstalking). Other new norm breaches are, however, characterized by the fact that they exploit technical innovations to generate an unacceptable advantage (for example, phishing attacks, goods fraud on the Internet). The social discussion of such new forms of crime, and in particular the response of the law enforcement authorities to these offenses, requires a thorough scientific analysis of the conditions of origin and the background, the perpetrators and victims as well as the individual and social consequences. Accordingly, the research unit Crime + crime effects focuses on socially important crime phenomena in their manifestations, forms and consequences.
Crime + crime effects
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Rocker crime | Organized Crime concerning Domestic Burglary | Cyberattacks against companies |
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The research unit Monitoring of unreported crime and program evaluation integrates various, partly periodically conducted dark figure surveys to self-reported victimisation or perpetratory criminal activities as well as their influencing factors and consequences. The flagship of this research unit is the representative student survey conducted since 1998 of about 10,000 ninth graders in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsensurvey). The primary objective of this survey is to gain insight into the dissemination, conditional factors, temporal progression and trends, as well as the prediction of delinquent behavior of adolescents. In addition to such classic criminalological content, however, current topics are also integrated into the survey (for example, from the current survey, questions on the integration of migrants, xenophobia, right-wing extremism and Islamophobia, questions about salafist attitudes or rejection of the majority society).
Monitoring of unreported crime and program evaluation
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School surveys | Update of regional analyses of right-wing extremism in Schleswig-Holstein |
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Update of regional analyses of right-wing extremism in Schleswig-Holstein |