slice 'em and dice 'em - Is violence in videogames a source for deviant behaviour in our society?
    the swiss code of criminal law was amended june 23, 1989 to include the new paragraph 135 concerning "representations of violence". although no hard scientific evidence proving the alleged connections between violence in the media and violence in society exists to date, the monocausal concept âviolence in media leads to violence in societyÔ is widely regarded as truthful. paragraph 135 of the criminal law code was primarily created as a reaction to society's and parents' helplessness in dealing with movies and videos with violent content. today, some ten years on, the same debate is resurfacing, this time with respect to computer and video games. the main difference is that these new media products are no longer consumed passively. they offer interaction and active participation in the events. does this new interactivity change the effects on the user? is there a causal connection between videogames and deviant behaviour in society? i propose to discuss questions like these (and, hopefully, offer some answers) as well inquiring into the necessity of paragraph 135. a brief comparative study of corresponding legislation in neighbouring european countries as well as in the usa will also be included. furthermore certain popular cases said to prove a causal connection between the representation of violence and deviant behaviour will be analyzed.
   
"legally protected good" and interpretation of criminal law
    the "legally protected good" is a concept used to give a material description of crime, usually of specific criminal norms. ist origins lie in germany, but it is also familiar to various other legal systems (switzerland, italy). a closer look reveals, that the foundations of the concept are not clear. the name ãlegally protected good" still stands for widely differring dogmatic concepts. nevertheless, the legally protected good ist seen as an important factor in interpretation of criminal law. in this situation it seems necessary to find out if the legally protected good really influences the interpretation of criminal laws or if it just serves as rhetoric argument to give a reason to the result the judge prefers. the analysis of the legally protected good shall be performed in various areas of swiss criminal law (e.g. drugs, lotteries). furthermore, the way legal scholars in nazi-germany dealt with the concept shall be presented.
   
for a complete list of gerhard fiolka's publications please click here.
prevalence of criminal norms
    starting from a criminological analysis of the decisions concerning the special part of the swiss criminal code, the prevalence and effectiveness of criminal norms is discussed in general. the analysis will cover the differences between groups of norms in the criminal code, as well as between certain specific norms.
 
for a complete list of thomas freytag's publications please click here.
commentary on art. 251 et seq. criminal code (falsification of documents)
    commentary on the 11th title of the swiss criminal code (falsification of documents; art. 251-257), commentary on the swiss criminal law. ed. by prof. dr. martin schubarth. vol. 6b.
   
jurisprudence concerning the swiss criminal code
    collection of decisions of the supreme court of switzerland
   
non-codified swiss criminal law
    collection of all material criminal norms of the swiss confederation which are not contained in the criminal code or the military criminal code, together with the most important side-laws relevant to criminal law
   
why punish ? development of crime, theories of crime and punishment and empirical evidence
    coursebook for criminal law and criminoogy analyzing the different goals of punishment and the existant criminological and empirical evidence
   
basle commentary on the swiss criminal code
    commentary on the criminal code of switzerland, edited together with judge hans wiprächtiger, member of the supreme court of switzerland
   
criminal law from a to z
    handbook for the study and practice of criminal law (alphabetically ordered)
   
for a complete list of m. a. niggli's publications please click here.
freedom of will and its protection by criminal law
    in the first, part freedom of will and its influence on the general and special part of the criminal code as well as on non-codified criminal laws are analyzed. in the second part, the different means of (socially inacceptable) coercion (as threating, force, cunning and psychic pressure) are defined and delimited, taking into account criminological research as well.

   
for a complete list of esther omlin's publications please click here.
confrontation and victim's rights
   

subject of the analysis is the right to confrontation according to art. 6 nr. 3 letter d of the european convention on human rights. the transformation of this norm into swiss procedural law as well as its deficits are discussed, taking also into account the jurisdiction of the convention's organs and (in a of comparative perspective) american and english law.

the collision of defence rights on the one hand and on the other hand protection rights, especially of children and juveniles as victims of sexual offences is emphasized.

   
for a complete list of dorrit schleiminger's publications please click here.
     

 

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