Saxony-Anhalt is planning ankle bracelets for violent criminals: A step towards security?

Saxony-Anhalt is planning ankle bracelets for violent criminals: A step towards security?

When it comes to domestic violence, there are signs of change. In Saxony-Anhalt, the alert is increasing because the number of cases has increased by a third in the last five years. These worrying developments raise the question of how vulnerable people can be protected more effectively. A promising approach is the introduction of electronic ankle bracelets, which are now also on the political agenda in Saxony-Anhalt.

How MDR reports, the state government plans to introduce the ankle bracelets as part of a more comprehensive violence protection concept. Building on successful models from other federal states, such as Hesse, there is great hope that these technical aids will enable better monitoring of evictions and contact bans. Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang (CDU) is in favor of this step, while the corresponding draft law will be discussed in the upcoming state parliament session.

Political reactions and concerns

Mixed reactions to the project are inevitable. While Eva von Angern, the parliamentary group leader of the Left, supports the idea, she points out that the ankle bracelet is only part of the solution. Sebastian Striegel from the Greens sees the same picture, but calls for a more comprehensive concept that also provides for legal obligations for the police to transmit data to offenders' workplaces. In contrast, Matthias Büttner from the AfD parliamentary group criticizes the initiative as a “fog candle”. His concerns mainly revolve around the technical vulnerability of these measures, which are often hardly used in everyday life.

The situation is similar at the federal level. The federal government also plans to introduce ankle bracelets across the board, especially in high-risk cases, to prevent homicides and serious bodily harm. How daily news explained, the draft bill from Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) should already be available. In a first phase, family courts could require perpetrators to wear such a device. The plan is for the police to be automatically alerted when a perpetrator approaches a victim.

Expectations and challenges

The ankle bracelet would initially be ordered for a maximum of six months, an extension of three months would be possible. Fortunately, the idea of ​​deployment is primarily inspired by the so-called “Spanish model”, which has successfully demonstrated that such measures can work; Since 2009 there has been no case of killing a victim by a perpetrator with an ankle bracelet in Spain. But skepticism remains - women's shelter associations are critical of the practical implementation. The tenor? It remains to be feared that legal hurdles and the already low use of existing measures will make ankle bracelets the exception.

The statistics speak volumes: In 2023, over 250,000 victims of domestic violence were registered in Germany; the number of unreported cases is high. Statistically, every two minutes a person is abused by a partner or relative, with the majority of those affected being women. The challenges are therefore numerous, and comprehensive protection for women from potential perpetrators remains the goal.

The developments surrounding electronic ankle bracelets show that politicians are pursuing a promising, albeit complex, approach. The topic will result in a lot of discussion and changes in the next few months, and it will be interesting to see how the legal framework and support offers will develop further.