Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law

Main Research:

Franziska Kunz is a sociologist whose doctoral thesis focuses on criminal behavior amongst the elderly. The principal goal of her research is to empirically test the validity of general theories of deviance and criminal behavior on those aged 50+. In addition, an attempt has also been made to estimate the number of criminal related incidents that go unreported. So far, around 2000 people in Baden-Wurttemberg aged between 49 and 81 years old have completed a postal survey. Besides self-reports on 14 types of offences and the theoretically important determinants of crime, additional data concerning experiences of victimization, fear of crime and social integration have been collected. Furthermore, around 100 survey participants have been interviewed in person to investigate whether moral beliefs and moral motivations differ between generations and change across the life span. A further scientific interest of Franziska is social science methodology. The empirical study on old-age crime, therefore, incorporates some research in survey-methodology.

Academic Background:

Franziska Kunz was born in Dresden in 1980. She studied sociology with psychology and communication sciences as electives at the University of Technology in Dresden. During her studies Franziska completed several internships, including a three-month internship at the Verein für Soziale Rechtspflege (VSR) Dresden e.V., where she worked at the arbitration board for victim offender mediation (VOM). Her diploma thesis included an empirical study on the subjective evaluations of VOM in German juvenile criminal law from the perspective of its participants. After finishing her studies she contributed to the project “Court-annexed mediation in Saxony” at the Institute of Sociology at the Dresden University. As of October 2007, Franziska is a doctoral student of the MaxNetAging Research School (MNARS). After finishing the initial period at the MPI for Demographic Research in Rostock in August 2008, she is continuing her work at the MPI in Freiburg.

Publications (selection):

• Kunz, Franziska: 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, 2007, Issue⁄Volume 6/90, p. 466 - 483.
• Kunz, Franziska: Wie allgemein sind allgemeine Kriminalitätstheorien? Eine empirische Analyse auf der Basis von Querschnittdaten. In: Monatsschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform, 2010, Issue⁄Volume 1/93, p. 42 - 68.
• Kunz, Franziska: Mahnaktionen in postalischen Befragungen: empirische Befunde zu Auswirkungen auf den Rücklauf, das Antwortverhalten und die Stichprobenzusammensetzung. In: Methoden Daten Analysen, 2010, Issue⁄Volume 4/2, p. 127 - 155.
• Kunz, Franziska / Grundies, Volker: Zur Messung von Norminternalisierung und Delinquenzbereitschaft in Befragungen: Beeinflusst der Fragekontext das Antwortverhalten der Respondenten? In: Monatsschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform, 2011, Issue⁄Volume 94/5, p. 345 - 363.
• Kunz, Franziska: Kriminelles Verhalten und polizeiliche Registrierung: Selbstberichte von Menschen im höheren Lebensalter. In: Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 2011, Issue⁄Volume 44/1, p. 55 - 65.

Further information:

• • Kriminalität von Senioren (104.6 KB)
  Press release, 15.12.2010
• • "Blick ins Dunkelfeld" (1534.5 KB)

  Interview on the project in "Der Sonntag", 19.07.2009
  

• • "Wenn Senioren kriminell werden" (590.8 KB)
  Report on the results of the mails survey in "Südkurier", 16.04.2010
• "Germany’s Graying Gangsters"
  

  Report of "Deutsche Welle" on DW-world.de, 28.12.2004
  

• Project`s short description in English
  

  [at the MaxNetAging Research School webpages]
  

• • Project description (08/2009) (156.7 KB)

Lectures:

Courses:

• Last update: 20 January 2012
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