Zweispurige Verbrechensbekämpfung

Abstract

This contribution examines Franz von Liszt’s involvement in the Swiss penal reform movement. It points out the transnational character of a reform movement which called for a criminal law based on individual prevention in many European countries. Being the author of the widely acknowledged »Marburger Programm«, Liszt exerted much influence on penal reforms in Switzerland, though this was directed more towards programmatic and organizational matters than legislation. In turn, he repeatedly introduced elements in his own argumentation that had previously been put forward in Switzerland. Thus, he finally adopted a dual system of sanctions, which differentiated between punishments and security measures. For Liszt, as for his Swiss colleagues, this system allowed the introduction of indeterminate sentences, though restricted to a minority of offenders, and of sanctions specifically adapted to different classes of offenders. At the same time he welcomed the dualism of punishment and security measures as a herald of »social defence«, which should definitely transgress the borders of criminal law. Actually this concept was to influence criminal policy both in Germany and Switzerland after the First World War. Thus, trends towards the establishment of differentiated regimes of sanctions and tendencies towards the gradual extension of the state’s prophylactic possibilities alike reflect a shared but highly problematic feature of continental criminal policy in the early 20th century.