German Federal Constitutional Court strengthens academic freedom

The court emphasized the importance of confidential data collection on criminal conduct. According to the Federal Constitutional Court, if confidential research data on criminal behavior is used for investigative purposes, this endangers criminological research and thus the prevention of crimes. Matthew Ansley on Unsplash The German Federal Constitutional Court has strengthened academic freedom in the wake of a case in which prosecutors had seized confidential interview data from a criminological re­search project. According to the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, criminology research should be reassured by the Court underlining the importance of confi­den­tial data collection. Dietrich Oberwittler, criminologist at the Institute, had highlighted the negative consequences of research data being seized in an official statement on the Constitu­tional Complaint challenging the seizure of research documentation. The case in question involved a professor of psychology at FAU Uni­ver­sity Erlangen-Nuremberg conducting in­terviews with prisoners as part of the DFG-funded re­search project "Islamistic radicalization within prison settings" with the aim of establishing why prisoners turn to extremist positions and radicalize whilst in prison. All subjects had been assured that data collection would be confidential.