„Gastarbeiterkriminalität“ und die Anfänge der Polizeilichen Kriminalstatistik in der frühen Bundesrepublik

Abstract

In 1953, the first edition of the annual Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik (PKS, police crime statistics) was published in the Federal Republic of Germany. In the early 1960s, as “guest workers” from Southern European countries began arriving, West German authorities set out to amend the PKS in order to better capturewhat was termed “guest worker criminality.” In analyzing the newly gathered data, police officials and criminologists pointed out that the “guest worker” demographic skewed young and male, while also arguing that “soft” factors such as environment, mentality and culture explained the relatively high share of violent crime committed by them.