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Dissertation topic:
Crime, Deviance, and Older People: a Self-Report-Study among 50-to-80-Years-Olds
Theoretical as well as empirical criminology mainly focuses on the crime and deviance of juveniles or younger people. Little is known about the criminal activities of people at advanced ages. Against the backdrop of population-aging processes, this issue is increasingly gaining importance. The project`s central aims are, thus: First, to collect self-report data on criminal behavior among older people, second to provide some descriptive information, and, third, to determine factors that prevent or facilitate criminal behaviors at older age. To explain law-breaking behavior in elders, some general concepts of crime causation as well as my own integrative model will be used as a theoretical framework. Finally, the concepts` explanatory powers will be compared, a contributing to theory development in criminology and sociology of deviance. The approach to data collection is two-fold: first, a standardized mail survey (N= 3767) will be carried out among 50 to 80-year-old Germans living in the administrative district of Freiburg i. Br. Next, about 100 of the mail survey respondents will be interviewed face-to-face to gather some additional qualitative information on decision-making in situations of moral dilemma.
Statement about MaxNetAging
"Generally speaking, I like it that MaxNetAging helps me to understand aging as a societal AND an individual phenomenon. The group’s interdisciplinary nature made a broader conceptualization and the non-technical phrasing of thoughts necessary. As a side-effect, this also prepares you to present your work to people even outside the scientific world. Due to the fact that all students work on aging, various interfaces between the dissertation projects emerged: either regarding methodology, the theoretical framework, or concerning research questions. Those students who recognized that their work is somehow linked already started to help others solving problems and to exchange information around the aspects of shared interest. From my perspective, being provided with such a social-scientific-support-network is the largest benefit of being a participant of MaxNetAging."
Publications
Kunz, Franziska (2007): Im Osten was Neues: Täter-Opfer-Ausgleich aus Sicht der Beteiligten. Ergebnisse einer Befragung von jugendlichen bzw. heranwachsenden Tätern und ihren Opfern. In: Monatsschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform, 6/90, S. 466-483.
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