Klassifikation politisch rechter Tötungsdelikte – Berlin 1990 bis 2008

The number of cases of right-wing motivated homicide in Germany has been controversial since the 1990s. The security authorities’ statistics stand facing the systematically higher numbers recorded by journalists and civilian society actors. The conflict about the correct statistics is simultaneously a conflict about the appropriate assessment of the danger posed by militant right-wing radicalism and a conflict about the respective monitoring competence of the authorities and civilian observers.
The twelve Berlin cases from 1990 to 2008 that either the police or civilian society actors classified as right-wing politically motivated were studied using the corresponding trial records: what is the design of the police collection system for political crime – the “Criminal Police Reporting Service – Politically Motivated Crime” (CPRS-PMC)(German: „Kriminalpolizeilicher Meldedienst – Politisch motivierte Kriminalität“ (KPMD–PMK)), that has been used since 2001? Where do problems exist in this system concerning the definition of right-wing homicides? How can these problems be rectified? How can the difference in the police and journalists’ case numbers be explained? Which old cases should from a social sciences point of view be reclassified as right-wing politically motivated cases?