Recidivism after Final Rejection of a Subsequent Order of Preventive Detention

Following the decisions of the European Council on Human Rights since 2009 and the German Federal Constitutional Court of 2011, the regulation of preventive detention in Germany had to be reregulated. Though they were based on a thin amount of data, the discussions about the dangerousness of the detainees were controversial and emotional. In 2011, we published results of a study on recidivism after (legally not ordered) subsequent preventive detention (S 66b German StGB). In the meantime, both the number of cases studied and the observation period covered has been expanded. The evaluation of the Federal Registry of Excerpts (Bundeszentralregister; BZR) from those offenders considered highly dangerous, but due to the jurisprudence of the Federal Supreme Court, not placed under subsequent preventive detention (nachtragliche Sicherungsverwahrung: nSV; S 66b German StGB) now detects an average period of 6.5 years (time at risk phi 78 months). Within this period, 28% were convicted of a serious offense relapse, 37% were convicted of a non-serious offense, and 34% were not reconvicted.