Judicial Rehabilitation in Germany – The Use of Criminal Records and the Removal of Recorded Convictions

This paper has two aims: First, it will explore the German legal system of central data collection on convicted offenders, the limited access to the data stored and the different modes of removing data. This exploration will be linked to the question of re-socialisation as a right of the offender and, more practically, to his ‘real life chances’ of finding a workplace as a decisive element of the re-integration process. Second, debates about judicial rehabilitation through the means of a formalized redemption ritual or ceremony (see Maruna, 2011) that acknowledges the desistance of ex-offenders will be examined in the German context.