Child and Youth Welfare (Schools II)

zoe.clark@uni-siegen.de

Main research areas

• Theories of justice
• Child and youth welfare research
• Help for upbringing
• Social pedagogy & police
• Applied methods of qualitative and quantitative social research

Selected publications

*Open Access

• Lutz, T./Kahrmann, M./Clark, Z./Wohlfarth, A./Kohlschmidt, J., 2025: Addresses and uses of the police by young people in the context of inpatient residential groups of educational support. In: Contradictions. 45th vol.: 29-42.
  • Abstract: In their article, Zoë Clark, Moana Kahrmann, Jonas Kohlschmidt, Tilman Lutz and Arne Ragunathan Wohlfarth examine the current DFG-funded research project "Polizei als Partnerin der Heimerziehung? The professional shaping of the relationship between residential care and the police as a horizon of young people's experiences" as a starting point to look at the hitherto little-noticed perspective of young people on police contact in the context of residential educational support. Based on the interim results of the project, they reconstruct how young people address the police. This shows that, despite experiences of rejection, disregard and violence, they describe the police as a potentially helpful and ultimately rescuing institution.
  • Download the article: https://www.widersprueche-zeitschrift.de/de/file/355/download?token=kVK_y8Ch
  • To the website of the booklet "Soziale Arbeit und Polizei. Tensions, relations and interdependencies": https://www.widersprueche-zeitschrift.de/de/heft/soziale-arbeit-und-polizei
• Clark, Z./Weber, R., 2025: Ambivalences of police use in Raum_58. In: Contradictions. 45th vol.: 87-90.
  • Abstract: The highly complex professional design and handling of police contacts - their defense to protect young people, but also the involvement of the police is the focus of the interview that Zoë Clark conducted with Rebecca Weber.
  • To the website of the magazine "Soziale Arbeit und Polizei. Tensions, relations and interdependencies": https://www.widersprueche-zeitschrift.de/de/heft/soziale-arbeit-und-polizei
• *Wohlfarth, A./Clark, Z., 2024: Causalities of the welfare state. International comparative studies. In: New Practice; Special Issue 18 "Causality and the Re-/Construction of Consequences of Social Assistance" (ed. Z. Clark/B. Dollinger/S. Heppchen): 58-68.
• *Clark, Z./Fritz, F./Inhoffen, C./Lutz, T., 2023: Police contacts in everyday home education - not pedagogically relevant situations? Research notes from an explorative study, In: Diskurs Kindheit- und Jugendforschung. 18th vol.: 273-278.
• Clark, Z./Fritz, F./Inhoffen, C./Lutz, T., 2023: Police Involvement in Children's Homes: An Exploration of Ambivalences, Challenges and Tensions between Residential Youth Care and the Police in Germany. In: Annual Journal for Norm Contestation and Peacebuilding.1. vol.: 1-13.
• Lutz, T./Clark, Z./Fritz, F./Inhoffen, C./Kohlschmidt, J., 2023: Who takes the blame? On the significance of the thematization of racial profiling for home education, In: Migration und Soziale Arbeit. 45th vol.: 349-357.
• *Clark, Z./Fritz, F./Inhoffen, C./Kohlschmidt, J., 2022: Grenzverschiebungen: On the relationship between home education, flight and police in Germany. In: Swiss Journal of Sociology. 48th vol.: 553-570.
• *Lutz, T./Clark, Z., 2022: Repressive step models in home education as an expression of the activating re-interpretation of education. In: Special Education Research Today, 67th vol.: 401-413.
• Clark, Z./Fritz, F./Inhoffen, C., 2021: "Wo sie [die Polizei] erstmal schon davon ausgehen das n Einsatz vielleicht gefährlicher ist als woanders" - Über die Folgen rassistischer Gefahrenzuschreibungen für junge Menschen aus der Heimerziehung. In: Polizei.Wissen. 5th vol.: 46-51.
• Clark, Z./Fritz, F./Inhoffen, C., 2021: Policing Young People. Forms of cooperation and conflict relationships between home education and the police. In: Franzheld, T./Walther, A. (eds.): "Vermessungen" der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe. An attempt to determine the situation. Weinheim: 190-209.
• Clark, Z./Fritz, F./Inhoffen, C., 2021: "Wo sie [die Polizei] erstmal schon davon ausgehen das n Einsatz vielleicht gefährlicher ist als woanders" - Über die Folgen rassistischer Gefahrenzuschreibungen für junge Menschen aus der Heimerziehung. In: Police.knowledge 5th vol: 46-51.
• *Clark, Z., 2019: Children's Dignity within a Culture of Sanctioning - Images of Recipients of Child Welfare Services. In: Social Work & Society. 16. vol.
• *Clark, Z., 2018: No Excuses - On the relationship between punishment and forgiving care relationships in residential education. In: Discourse on Childhood and Youth Research. 13th vol.: 55-68.
• *Clark, Z./Schwerthelm, M./Vesper, L.-A., 2018: A defense against child endangerment is not yet a creation of the good life. In: Contradictions. 38th vol.: 73-86.
• Clark, Z./Schwerthelm, M., 2017: Manualized punishment or democratic forgiveness? On the possibilities and conditions of forgiveness in residential care. In: Sozial Extra. 41st vol.: 15-18.

Research project

Police as a partner in residential care? The professional shaping of the relationship between home education and the police as a horizon of experience for young people
Funded by the DFG
Project duration: 01.11.2023 - 31.10.2026

In the practice of residential care, there are numerous occasions for different interactions and/or collaborations between the police and residential care facilities that have potentially serious consequences for young people. The extent and nature of the contact between residential care organizations and the police as well as the experiences, interpretations and processing methods of young people are the central subjects of this project. The research design includes a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative research. First, types of interaction and cooperation between home education and the police are statistically differentiated and correlated with pedagogical orientation patterns. Qualitative interviews with users are used to record how interventions and the presence of the police in these different types of institutions are experienced, subjectively interpreted and processed by young people. The extent to which young people's experiences of the police and the pedagogical handling of these experiences have consequences for the self-perceptions and external positioning of those affected will be investigated. The questions are:

• How are educators perceived against the background of police experiences, for example as advocates, as investigative assistants or simply as uninvolved witnesses of events?
• How do young people perceive their status as subjects in police interactions, how do police experiences influence their perspective on themselves as present and future (legal) subjects?
• What role do educators and their interactions play in the extent to which young people can (re)position themselves as (legal) subjects in relation to institutions? Do the police experiences and the perspectives of young people on these experiences correspond with the types of cooperation and interaction as well as the pedagogical orientations in the organizations?

Theory and History of Social Pedagogy (Schools II)

bernd.dollinger@uni-siegen.de

Main research areas

• Theory and history of social pedagogy
• Youth/criminality, professionalization
• Social pedagogy and social policy

References to criminality

• Historical studies on juvenile delinquency
• Staging crime in rap and gangsta rap
• Subjective experiences of criminal sentencing
• Transformations in criminal policy
• Professional action in the context of juvenile criminal law

Selected publications

* Open Access

• Baldsiefen, A./Dollinger.B./Rieger, J., 2025; in the original: Impact as a practice of differentiation: The use of impact attributions to gangsta rap by young recipients. In: Journal for the Sociology of Education and Socialization. 45th vol.
• Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H., 2025: Social problems on the move. Crime as a traveling concept. In: Social Problems. 36th vol.: 3-18.
• *Dollinger, B., 2024: The Good, the Bad and the Narrative: How Youth Experience the "Gangsta" in Rap Music. In: Youth Justice. 24. vol.: 429-443. https://doi.org/10.1177/14732254241239028
• Dollinger, B., 2024: The Problematization and Control of Juvenile Delinquency in Prussia at the Beginning of the 19th Century. In: Social Problems. 35th vol.: 183-201.
• *Dollinger, B., 2024: Causality as conflict and narrative legitimization of socio-pedagogical practice. In: New Practice; Special Issue 18 "Causality and the Re-/Construction of Consequences of Social Assistance" (ed. Z. Clark/B. Dollinger/S. Heppchen): 11-23.
• Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H./Stein, D., 2024: How criminality 'travels'. An approach to the development of institutionalized forms of knowledge about crime. In: M. Harbusch (ed.): Traveling knowledge. 'Traveling Concepts' as a sociological category. Wiesbaden: 157-173. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-45229-2
• Dollinger, B., 2023: From bandit to gangsta? An actualization of Eric Hobsbawm's "Bandits" in contemporary pop culture. In: Pop. Culture and Criticism. 12th vol.:154-171.
• Dollinger, B., 2023: Forms of criminality. On the historical production of differential crime realities. In: Criminological Journal. 55th vol.: 217-233.
• *Dollinger, B./Rieger, J., 2023: Crime as Pop. Gangsta Rap as Popular Staging of Norm Violations. In: Arts. 12. vol. https://doi. org/10.3390/arts12010021
• Dollinger, B./Keßler, K./Rocher, M., 2023: Crime prevention through education? The constitution of juvenile delinquency around 1800. In: Zeitschrift für Jugendkriminalrecht und Jugendhilfe. 34th vol.: 4-12.
• Dollinger, B./Osawa, S./Schirmer, S., 2022: Constructions of deviance by Japanese and German youth. A criminological comparison as a "bottom-up" project. In: Youth Justice. 22nd vol.: 206-221.
• Dollinger, B., 2021: When criminality got a biography. Paradoxes of the conceptualization of criminality in the criminal histories of the late Enlightenment. In: Journal of Criminology. 53rd vol.: 242-257.
• Dollinger, B., 2021: Working on the future with risk factors? A (renewed) call for caution. In: Journal of Juvenile Criminal Law and Youth Welfare. 32nd vol.: 13-20.
• Althoff, M./Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H. (eds.), 2020: Conflicting Narratives of Crime and Punishment. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Dollinger, B., 2020: Changing Narratives of Youth Crime: From Social Causes to Threats to the Social. London: Routledge.
• Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H., 2020: Narrative Criminology? A critical reflection on recent narrative positions in criminology. In: Journal of Criminology. 52nd vol.: 196-210.

Research projects

Juvenile delinquency in the "Sattelzeit"
Funded by the DFG
Project duration: 01.09.2021 - 31.08.2024
The project aims to explore the conceptualization of juvenile delinquency during the so-called "Sattelzeit" towards the end of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century. It is assumed that this period saw a fundamental transformation in the way juvenile delinquency was understood and dealt with. Specifically, the following questions will be addressed:

1. Is juvenile delinquency attested an independent quality in the sources analyzed compared to the criminality attributed to adults in particular?
2. What justifications for delinquency among young people are communicated?
3. What reactions to delinquency are postulated and what goals are associated with these measures?

These questions will be reconstructed using three types of sources: Communication in the environment of the first Prussian Ministry of Culture since 1825, Policey orders as well as public debates in newspapers. The reconstruction is thus deliberately limited to political-administrative and public discourse. Analyses from the three types of sources will be brought together in order to develop a complex picture of juvenile delinquency during the period in question in a differentiated synopsis. The project objectives include a focus on how youth was conceptualized in principle and how special measures of help and education were justified for young people accused of delinquency. By focusing on juvenile delinquency, the project can therefore make an important contribution not only to historical crime research, but also to historical youth research and historical social pedagogy.

Staging crime: gangsta rap in interactive identity practices of young people
Sub-project of the DFG Collaborative Research Center "Transformations of the Popular"
Project duration: 01.01.2021 - 31.12.2024
The sub-project examines the central assumption for the DFG CollaborativeResearch Center 1472 "Transformations of the Popular"
central assumption of self-legitimizing popularity to an empirical analysis. Gangsta rap attracts a great deal of attention among young people and is at the same time publicly and in some cases legally discredited. The sub-project uses this starting point to analyze how young people use gangsta rap as an aesthetic practice, in particular with a focus on the interactive staging of their identity within the framework of social references. Three questions are addressed:

1. What interactive practices do young people exhibit by making semantic and aesthetic-stylistic references to gangsta rap?
2. What relevance is attached to the use of popular semantics and stylizations of criminality and possibly other dimensions of norm violations over time?
3. In what way are scene affiliations processed through semantics and styles of gangsta rap, including in digital communication?

The three questions relate to individual agency (question 1), temporality and development (question 2) and social affiliations (question 3). Identity is an interactive achievement that can be reconstructed as a multidimensional variable using the three questions. As young people's constructions of identity in relation to gangsta rap are in conflict with public and legal discrediting, the sub-project is able to empirically investigate the phenomenon of second-order popularization in detail. In relation to gangsta rap, it makes both its popularity and its (possible) complexity and contradictions visible by exploring gangsta rap as a popular but controversial focus of identity negotiations.
The research is based on the context-related social and aesthetic practices of the young people themselves, using participant observation and group interviews to collect data.

Juvenile delinquency in political interdiscourse
funded by the DFG
Project duration: 01.07.2013 - 30.06.2015
with Prof. Dr. Henning Schmidt-Semisch, University of Bremen
The research project "Youth Criminality in Political Interdiscourse", funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and carried out at the Universities of Siegen and Bremen since 01.07.2013, is the follow-up project to the study "Youth Criminality in Interdiscourse" conducted between May 2011 and April 2013.
While the first project focused on the institutional-professional level, the second project period from 2013 to 2015 will now see an in-depth examination of the state and national political debates associated with juvenile delinquency.
The aim of the study is to reconstruct the political discourses with regard to possible punitive tendencies and to reveal the links, connections and discrepancies between the political decision-making level and the profession-specific constructions of juvenile delinquency (identified in the previous project). Of interest here is the extent to which discourse positions differ depending on different party affiliations, but also fundamentally over time and with regard to different perpetrator and delinquency images.
To this end, plenary minutes of various state parliaments (Bavaria, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony-Anhalt) as well as the Bundestag and the Bundesrat for the period between 1970 and 2009 are analyzed in which 'juvenile delinquency' is thematically discussed.
At the methodological level, the interdiscourse analysis approach originally developed in linguistics by Jürgen Link is applied, which has been further developed, adapted and made usable for social science purposes.

Juvenile delinquency in interdiscourse
funded by the DFG
Project duration: 01.05.2011 - 30.04.2013
with Prof. Dr. Henning Schmidt-Semisch, University of Bremen
The thesis of increasing punitivity is widespread in socio-educational and criminological literature: Compared to the 1970s and 1980s, successively more rigid forms of behavior with regard to criminality are advocated and implemented. A high degree of punitive thinking has become established, which is based on social discipline and the protection of society from crime. The socio-pedagogical focus on education and resocialization has been revised or overlaid as a result.
Although individual academic observers articulate doubts about this thesis, it is often assumed to be valid without closer empirical examination. The planned project will therefore use the example of juvenile delinquency to analyze the relationship between socio-pedagogical and police interpretations of delinquency over the past decades and whether and in what way a development towards more punitiveness has taken place. This is done by qualitatively addressing two research questions: On the one hand, a discourse-analytical evaluation of practice-related journals will be used to determine the interpretations of juvenile delinquency in socio-educational and police journals. On the other hand, on this basis it will be determined with what justification it is possible to speak of a "punitive change". Punitivity is interpreted as a complex of special interpretations of criminality related to punishment.

Sociology of Law and Legal Gender Studies (Schools III, Business Law)

anika.gomille@uni-siegen.de

Main research areas

• Deviant behavior, extremism
• Vigilantism
• Qualitative methods
• Wrongful convictions
• Research on legal facts

Selected publications

*Open Access

• Negnal, D./Gomille, A., 2025: Hyperfemininity. Figures of social differentiation and marginalization in the penal system. In: Criminology - The Online Journal; Special issue "(De-)Criminalization" (ed. Negnal, D./Gomille, A.). Vol. 7: 57-79.
• *Gomille, A., 2022: Current challenges in adult protection law and the associated demands on social work. In: Social Passages. 14th vol.: 112-128.
• *Gomille, A./Dessecker, A., 2020: The enforcement of life sentences. Duration and reasons for termination in 2018. KrimZ (BM-Online). Vol. 20. Wiesbaden.
• Gomille, A./Illgner, C., 2020: Prison - a place of prevention, (re)socialization or radicalization? In: Forum Penitentiary System. 69th vol.: 215-220.
• Gomille, A./Illgner, C., 2020: Islamist radicalization and security - On the spectrum of prevention in prison. In: Berliner Forum Gewaltprävention, Interdisziplinäre Beiträge zur Radikalisierung - Perspektiven aus Wissenschaft und Praxis. Issue no. 69, 77-83.
• Illgner, C./Gomille, A., 2020: Prison climate and the right to resocialization. In: B.-D. Meier/K. Leimbach (eds.): Prisons in the focus of criminology. Interdisciplinary contributions to the prison system and reintegration. Berlin: 87-104.
• Hoffmann, A., 2019: Citizen vigilante groups and their significance in public space. Deviant behavior as a criminologically relevant phenomenon. Wiesbaden.
• *Prues, A./Hoffmann, A./Rettenberger, M., 2019: Stress experience and secondary victimization through abuse and mistreatment in church institutions. In: Monthly Journal of Criminology and Criminal Law Reform. 102nd vol.: 1-8.
• *Hoffmann, A./Illgner, C./Leuschner, F./Rettenberger, M., 2017: Extremismus und Justizvollzug. Literature review and empirical surveys. KrimZ (BM-Online). Vol. 10. Wiesbaden.
• *Hoffmann, A./Leuschner, F., 2017: Rehabilitation and compensation after completion of a prison sentence and successful resumption. KrimZ (BM-Online). Vol. 11. Wiesbaden.

Research project

Isolated together. Gender stereotypes in correctional education measures
funded as part of the Federal Government's Women Professors Program III
Project duration: 2022 - 2024
together with Jun.-Prof.'in Dr.'in Dörte Negnal

With reference to the very low proportion of women in the prison system, 'their special problems' and their structural disadvantage are stated. These correspond to gender stereotypes which, in the context of imprisonment, follow on from previous role models of women and thus promote the further marginalization of imprisoned women. At the same time, it should be noted that not every distinction between 'men' and 'women' can be understood as discrimination. So how does discrimination come into play in the prison context and what impact does it have in everyday prison life and with regard to release? To this end, the knowledge about 'women' and 'men' in everyday prison life - in the prison departments, the school and professional periods as well as in the leisure area - and the associated positioning of prisoners and prison staff are ethnographically researched.

Keywords: Legal Gender Studies - prison system - education - imprisoned women - marginalization

Social Science Criminology and Legal Gender Studies (Schools II)

doerte.negnal@uni-siegen.de


Research focus

• Instances of social control
• Constructions of dangerousness & statehood
• Problematizations of social groups
• Methods of qualitative institutional research
• Interaction and process analytical research perspectives

Selected publications

*Open Access

• Negnal, D./Gomille, A., 2025: Hyperfemininity. Figures of social differentiation and marginalization in the penal system. In: Criminology - The Online Journal; Special issue "(De-)Criminalization" (ed. Negnal, D./Gomille, A.). Vol. 7: 57-79.
• Negnal, D., 2025: 'Ending' the journey of criminality. Discharges in deradicalization work. In Social Problems. 36th ed: 55-72.
• Negnal, D./Muhl, D., 2024: The Specialization of "Women in Prison" - Intersectional Considerations of Gender in the Context of Coercion. In: Social Problems. 35th vol.: 161-182.
• *Negnal, D./Thiele, R./Sauerwein, A./Bruhn, H., 2024: "Deradicalization" as transitional work. Integrative practices around the penal system. Bielefeld.
• Negnal, D., 2023: The verbal index card - On the documentation practice of the non-dangerous in prevention work. In: Social Problems. 34th vol.: 45-61.
• Negnal, D./Thiele, R., 2023: "We have no case". Sequential executions and constant comparison for an analysis of what did not occur. In: Social Sense. 24th vol.: 223-252.
• Porsché, Y./Negnal, D./Howe, C., 2020: Police Work Under Scrutiny. (Self-)criticism in an Ethnographic Focus Group. In: L. Grujicic-Alatriste (ed.): Language Research in Multilingual Settings. Doing Research Knowledge Dissemination at the Sites of Practice. Cham: 23-46.
• Dollinger, B./Negnal, D., 2019: Discourse - Practice - Crime. In: Criminology - The Online Journal. 1st vol.: 110-112.
• Negnal, D., 2019: Interpreting as transsituational practice. The example of preventive police work as professional politics. In: Journal of Political Science. 29th vol.: 287-305.
• Scheffer, T./Howe, C./Kiefer, E./Negnal, D./Porsché, Y., 2017: Police communitarianism. On the practice of urban crime prevention. Frankfurt a.M.
• Negnal, D., 2016: The construction of a problem group. An ethnography of Russian-speaking detainees in juvenile detention. Weinheim.

Research projects

Isolated together. Gender stereotypes in correctional educational measures
funded as part of the Federal Government's Professorinnenprogramm III
Project duration: 2022 - 2024
with Jun.-Prof.'in Dr.'in Anika Gomille

With reference to the very low proportion of women in the prison system, 'their special problems' and their structural disadvantage are stated. These correspond to gender stereotypes which, in the context of imprisonment, follow on from previous role models of women and thus promote the further marginalization of imprisoned women. At the same time, it should be noted that not every distinction between 'men' and 'women' can be understood as discrimination. So how does discrimination come into play in the prison context, especially in educational measures, and what impact does it have in everyday prison life and with regard to release from prison? To this end, the knowledge of 'women' and 'men' in everyday prison life - in the prison wards, the school and vocational periods as well as in the leisure area - and the associated positioning of prisoners and prison staff are ethnographically researched.

Resilience in the prison system. Resilience and the non-radicalization of adolescents and young adults
Funded by the BMFSFJ
Project duration: 2019 - 2022

With the emerging discourse on radicalization in prison, the call to action for the prison system and its staff to actively create security alongside resocialization measures by preventing or interrupting the radicalization of inmates becomes explicit. Radicalization is accepted, recognized and dealt with. Science supports this discourse by investigating the causes and processes of radicalization. But what about the non-occurrence of radicalization? How do those working in deradicalization and disengagement know the 'non-case'? For this purpose, both professionals in deradicalization and exit work and detainees in everyday prison life were ethnographically accompanied. The central concern of the project is to reconstruct the processes, reference points and techniques in order to make them accessible for discussion.

Practical research on police crime prevention
German-French cooperation project funded by the BMBF
Project duration: 05/2012 - 12/2015

The project focused on the knowledge practices of police crime prevention. Contrary to the widespread assumption that crime prevention is oriented towards so-called target groups (e.g. in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention), we show how the forms of crime prevention are organized. They revolve around the creation and establishment of fragile working alliances.

Book: Police Communitarianism. Eine Praxisforschung urbaner Kriminalprävention, Frankfurt a.M./New York: Campus (with Thomas Scheffer, Christiane Howe, Eva Kiefer, Yannik Porsché)

Theory of Social Pedagogy (Schools II)

holger.schmidt@uni-siegen.de

Main areas of work

• Social problems and social control
• Social differentiation and inequalities
• Penal system
• Biographical and narrative research
• Interpretative social research

References to crime

• Youth/criminality
• Relationship between crime, punishment and narratives
• Relationship between social pedagogy and crime
• The penal system: subjective experience, violence and suicide
• Recent developments in criminology

Selected publications

• Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H., 2025: Social problems on the move. Crime as a traveling concept. In: Social Problems, 36th vol.: 3-18.
• Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H./Stein, D., 2024: How crime 'travels'. An approach to the development of institutionalized forms of knowledge about crime. In: M. Harbusch (ed.): Traveling knowledge. 'Traveling Concepts' as a sociological category. Wiesbaden: 157-173.
• Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H., 2022: What does the prison do? Perspectives of basic research on the penal system and its consequences. In: W. Wirth (ed.): Steuerung und Erfolgskontrolle im Strafvollzug: Zur evidenzbasierten Gestaltung freiheitsentziehender Sanktionen. Wiesbaden: 385-400.
• Althoff, M./Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H., 2020: Conflicting Narratives of Crime and Punishment. Basingstoke.
• Althoff, M./Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H., 2020: Fighting for the 'right' narrative: Introduction to Conflicting Narratives of Crime and Punishment. In: M. Althoff, B. Dollinger, & H. Schmidt (eds.): Conflicting Narratives of Crime and Punishment. Basingstoke: 1-20.
• Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H., 2020: Narrative Criminology? A critical reflection on recent narrative positions in criminology. Journal of Criminology, 52nd vol.: 196-210.
• Schmidt, H., 2019: Injustice in the juvenile justice system. Biographical explorations of a socio-moral emotion. Weinheim.
• Schmidt, H., 2016: (In-)justice in Prison - a biographical Perspective. In: C. Reeves (ed.): Experiencing Imprisonment: Research on the Experience of living and working in Carceral Institutions. London; New York: 63-80.

Research projects

Violence and suicide in juvenile detention - phenomenon, causes, prevention
funded by the DFG (project leader: Prof. Dr. Frank Neubacher; University of Cologne)
Project duration: 05/2010 - 07/2013

The aim of the project is to research the development process of violence and suicide in the context of juvenile detention. The underlying working model is based on a synthesis of various theories (including importation and deprivation theory). It is based on the assumption that an interplay of different aspects in the process of the prisoner's adaptation to prison contributes to the development of violence and suicide.

Violence and suicide are seen as two possible strategies that can be used to react to the pressure to adapt. The extent to which inter-individual differences exist and to what extent they are decisive for the actions of prisoners is investigated using a research strategy specifically tailored to the research question.

At the core of the study, a longitudinal questionnaire survey of prisoners was combined with qualitative interviews and the analysis of prisoners' personal files in the sense of a method triangulation. For further comparison, two control groups were recruited (longitudinal sample of male probationers; cross-sectional sample of female and male pupils and students).

Violence and suicide among female and male juvenile prisoners - conditions of origin and developmental trajectories in gender comparison
Funded by the DFG (project management: Prof. Dr. Frank Neubacher; University of Cologne)
Project duration: 07/2013 - 08/2017

The data on young female prisoners obtained using a comparable methodology enables a deeper insight into the (conflict) dynamics in the female juvenile prison system and a comparison with the data on male juvenile prisoners collected in the previous project. In addition to recurring surveys, qualitative interviews and a file survey, all female juvenile prisoners in custody throughout Germany were surveyed for the first time at the beginning of 2015.

North American Literary and Cultural Studies, Department of English Studies (Faculty I)

stein@anglistik.uni-siegen.de

Main areas of research

• US-American popular culture since the 19th century
• African-American literature and culture
• Comics & graphic literature
• Early crime fiction, seriality
• transnational and intermedial relationships

References to crime

• City mystery novels as a popular genre of early crime fiction in the 19th century
• Crime, violence, conspiracy narratives in superhero comics
• Lynch law, slavery and crimes against the African-American population (graphic literature, cultural history)

Selected publications

*Open Acess

• Stein, D., 2025; n.d.: Platform Politics and Paratextual Negotiations: Analyzing a Popular The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Subreddit Thread. In: N. Werber/J. Döring (eds.): Paratexts of the Popular. Berlin.
• Stein, D./Albrecht, M. (eds.), 2025: Introducing Serial Circulation: Print Cultures and Periodical Modernities. Anglia: Journal of English Philology. 143rd ed. https://doi. org/10.1515/ang-2025-0001
• Stein, D., 2025: Crime on the move: On the Circulation of Crime Concepts in Transatlantic Serial Literature around 1850. in: Social Problems. 36th vol.: 19-37.
• *de Laforcade, G./Stein, D., 2024: Beyond Scarcity and Hardship: Historical and Contemporary Reflections on Cuban Comics. In: Forum for Inter-American Research. 17th vol.: 22-39.
• Dollinger, B./Schmidt, H./Stein, D., 2024: How criminality 'travels'. An approach to the development of institutionalized forms of knowledge about crime. In: M. Harbusch (ed.): Traveling knowledge. 'Traveling Concepts' as a sociological category. Wiesbaden: 157-173. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-45229-2
• *Stein, D., 2024: Lynching and graphic literature: On the intersectionality of Rachel Marie-Crane William's Elegy for Mary Turner (2021). In: A. Beckmann/K. Kupczynska/M. Schröer/V. Sina (eds.): Race, Class, Gender & Beyond: Intersectional Approaches to Comics Research. Berlin: 29-51. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110799385-004
• Stein, D., 2024: Shakespeare in Harlem: Race, (Popular) Culture, and I Am Alfonso Jones. In: J. Casey/B. Christopher (eds.): Shakespeare and Comics: Negotiating Cultural Value. London: 42-54.
• Stein, D., 2024: Jazz Autobiography. In: M. Borshuk (ed.): Jazz and American Culture. Cambridge: 248-61.
• Stein, D., 2023: Precarious memory: retcon and conspiracy theories in the superhero comic Captain America. In: Journal for Cultural Studies. 17th vol.: 39-59.
• Stein, D., 2023: Racialines: Interrogating Stereotypes in Comics. In: M. Ahmed (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Comics. Cambridge: 204-224.
• *Stein, D./Werber, N., 2023: Reassessing the Gap: Transformations of the High/Low Difference. In: Arts. 12th vol.: 199.
• *Werber, N./Stein, D., 2023: Participation and paratext. The 'reader contact page' and the Perry Rhodan fan forum as serial peri- and epitexts. In: Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics. 53rd vol.: 655-694.
• Stein, D., 2022: Holes Swarming with Human Beings': Racing the Urban Underclass in the Antebellum City Mystery Novel. In: G. de Laforcade/D. Stein/C. C. Waegner (eds.): The Aliens Within: Danger, Disease, and Displacement in Representations of the Racialized Poor. Berlin: 45-65.
• *Stein, D., 2022: Ta-Nehisi Coates's Black Panther and Afrodiasporic Archives. In: Amerikastudien/American Studies. 67th vol. 127-143.
• Stein, D., 2021: Authorizing Superhero Comics: On the Evolution of a Popular Serial Genre. Columbus.
• *Stein, D., 2021: Lessons in Graphic Non-Fiction: John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell's March and Civil Rights Pedagogy. In: Journal of American Studies. 55th vol. 620-656.
• Stein, D., 2020a: What's in an Archive? Cursory Observations and Serendipitous Reflections. In: Anglia: Journal of English Philology. 138th ed: 337-354.
• Stein, D., 2020b: Conflicting Counternarratives of Crime and Justice in US Superhero Comics. In: M. Althoff/B. Dollinger/H. Schmidt (eds.): Conflicting Narratives of Crime and Punishment. Cham: 139-160.
• Stein, D., 2019: Slavery as Racial Dis/order in Antebellum American: The Case of the City Mystery Novel. In: D. Stein/L. Wiele (eds.): Nineteenth-Century Serial Narrative in Transnational Perspective, 1830s-1860s: Popular Culture - Serial Culture. Cham: 287-309.
• Stein, D., 2017: Serial Politics in Antebellum America: On the Cultural Work of the City-Mystery Genre. In: F. Kelleter (ed.): Media of Serial Narrative. Columbus: 53-73.

Research projects

Serial Circulation: The German-American Mystery Novel and the Beginnings of Transatlantic Modernity (1850-1855)
funded by the DFG

Project duration: 2022 - 2024

The project examines German-language popular mystery novels by August Gläser, Heinrich Börnstein, Emil Klauprecht, Rudolph Lexow and Ludwig von Reizenstein, which were first serialized in newspapers and later published in book form in the USA between 1850 and 1855. It places these novels within the international "mysterymania" that followed the sensational success of Eugène Sue's feuilleton novel Les Mystères de Paris (1842-43), which in the United States produced English-language bestsellers such as George Lippard's The Quaker City; or the Monks of Monk Hall (1844-45) and George Thompson's City Crimes; or, Life in New York and Boston (1849), but also German-language works such as Die Geheimnisse von St. Louis (Börnstein, 1854). Louis (Börnstein, 1854-55) and The Mysteries of New Orleans (von Reizenstein, 1854-55). The project analyzes the German-American mystery novels comprehensively and systematically for the first time as representatives of a locally situated, transregionally networked and transnationally oriented popular serial literature after 1848, by means of which rapidly growing and increasingly heterogeneous German-speaking readerships within individual regions of the USA (Northeast, Midwest, South) as well as beyond imagined themselves as a politically relevant community. The project understands this nexus of serial circulation, immigrant literature and popular culture as an expression of a transatlantic modernity that emerged in the mid-19th century and to whose development the mystery novels made a hitherto underestimated contribution.

Serial Politicization: On the Cultural Work of American City Mysteries, 1844-1860
Sub-project of the DFG Research Group "Popular Seriality - Aesthetics and Practice"

Project duration: 2013 - 2017

In the wake of European feuilleton novels (Eugène Sue, Les Mystères de Paris, 1842-43; George Reynolds, The Mysteries of London, 1844-46), a popular genre emerged in the USA between 1844 and 1860: the City Mysteries by authors such as George Lippard, Ned Buntline, George Thompson and Osgood Bradbury. Many of these serialized novels seek to implement social reforms and bring about political change. Using sensationalist and melodramatic narrative techniques, they appeal to a national readership and protest against the temptations and crimes of the big city, the betrayal of republican ideals, political corruption and the exploitation of the working class by overpowering capitalists. At the same time, they promote and serve the growing American population's need for serial entertainment with ever new, breathtaking stories. This project understands the city mystery genre as an active part of a dynamic network of serialized cultural practices with particular implications for American politics in the Antebellum Era. It examines two basic hypotheses: (1) The City Mysteries perform cultural work because, as a popular genre, they establish serial narrative forms and procedures that contribute to the differentiation of American popular culture. (2) The City Mysteries thus make politics, because as serially produced, published and received popular cultural actors they not only address the conflicts of their time; they also structure the field of political possibilities for action and participate in the shaping of American politics in the decades before the Civil War. The project thus explores the politicizing dynamics of popular seriality - i.e. the connection between serial genre genesis and political agitation - using a significant example of American literature.

Romance Literary and Cultural Studies/General Literary Studies (Faculty I)

yasmin.temelli@uni-siegen.de

Main research areas

• Latin American literature (Mexico and Colombia)
• French literature of the 17th century and the 20th/21st century
• Literature and medicine
• Biopolitics
• Research on violence
• Ecocrítica

Selected publications

* Open Access

• Baumbach, M./Temelli, Y. (eds.), 2024: Shipwreck. Of sinkings and new beginnings. Stuttgart.
• Temelli, Y. (ed.), 2023: Quo vadis? Perspectivas de los estudios latinoamericanos. Heidelberg.
• *Maltz, H./Temelli, Y., 2022: Narrativa criminal en(tre) México y la Argentina. In: iMex. México Interdisciplinario - Interdisciplinary Mexico: 11th vol: 8-15.
• Temelli, Y., 2022: Narration of resilience - Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vacas Naufragios (1542/1749). In: Romanistisches Jahrbuch. 73rd vol. 342-358.
• Temelli, Y., 2021: Le sel n'est pas salé. Depression and the Depressive Experience of Male Characters in Contemporary French Literature. Baden-Baden.
• Temelli, Y./Bouchard, H. (eds.), 2021: Narratives of Money & Crime. Neoliberalism in Literature, Film and Popular Culture. Bern.
• Temelli, Y., 2018: Un style au scalpel: l'écriture acérée d'Antoine Sénanque dans Blouse (2004) et La grande garde (2007). In: H.-J. Lüsebrink/H. Madry/J. Pröll (eds.): Médecins-écrivains français et francophones: imaginaires - poétiques - perspectives interculturelles et transdisciplinaires. Würzburg: 269-283.
• Temelli, Y., 2017: Vivir el momento y morir al instante: El sicario como figura efímera en la narrativa colombiana. In: Romance Notes. 57th vol: 245-254.
• Temelli, Y., 2015: La nueva novela policiaca mexicana: violencia polifacética y factor femenino - el caso de Morena en rojo de Myriam Laurini. In: W. Mackenbach/G. Maihold (eds.): La transformación de la violencia en América Latina. Guatemala: 239-260.
• Temelli, Y., 2014: Sonidos de violencia: narcocorridos mexicanos y 'aggro Berlin'. In: V. Borsò/G. Leyva/Y. Temelli (eds.): Democracia y violencia entre lo global y lo local. Democracy and violence between the global and the local. Düsseldorf: 99-118.

Research projects

• "TatOrte: Spaces of Capital Crime from Antiquity to the Present" (lecture series in summer semester 2023 in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Manuel Baumbach, Ruhr University Bochum)
• 'The mobile villain in Mexican narcocorridos and Colombian corridos prohibidos' (sub-project as part of a planned research group in cooperation with the Universities of Bonn and Marburg)

Didactics of Social Sciences (Faculty I)

alexander.wohnig@uni-siegen.de



Research focus

• Social science education in and out of school
• Social science education and (unequal) political participation/civic engagement/social learning
• Political philosophy/political theory, social theory, political sociology and their relationship to social science education
• Informal educational processes in youth scenes and social space-oriented learning
• Methodology of qualitative social research, empirical political didactics, discourse-analytical educational media analysis

Selected publications

*Open Access

• Sämann, J./Wohnig, A., 2025: Education as the prevention of crime? On the journey of the prevention approach from 'politics' to extracurricular political youth education. In: Social Problems. 36th vol.: 38-54.
• Wohnig, A., 2024: Democracy education and/or political education: Attempts at differentiation using the example of the extracurricular political youth education center. In: F. Fritz/B. Schmidt/S. Walter/M. Zwecker (eds.): How does participatory political education for adolescents and young adults succeed in soccer? Weinheim: 28-43.
• Barbehön, M./Heil, M./Wohnig, A., 2023: Politische Bildung im Umbruch: Zu den zeitlichen Ambivalenzen von transformativen Bildung aus der Perspektive revolutionären Denkens. In: Journal for Didactics of the Social Sciences. 14th vol.: 102-122.
• *Butterer, H./Sämann, J./Wohnig, A., 2023: Learning venues of extracurricular civic education - innovation spaces and tendencies of their functionalization. In: heiEDUCATION Journal. Transdisciplinary studies on teacher education. 5th vol.: 23-42.
• Sämann, J./Wohnig, A., 2023: Dissolution of boundaries in the discourse on democracy education and civic education. In: The pedagogical view. 30th vol.: 257-268.
• Barbehön, M./Wohnig, A., 2022: (Political) education as prevention: On the shortcomings of a preventive reference to the future. In: C. Bünger/A. Czejkowska/I. Lohmann/G. Steffens (eds.): Yearbook for Pedagogy 2021. future - state now. Weinheim: 170-181.
• Barbehön, M./Wohnig, A., 2022: Political education in and for democracy. On the relationship between state governance and political education. In: From Politics and Contemporary History 48th vol. 11-16.
• Pelzel, S./Wohnig, A., 2022: De-normalized normativity. On the significance of a contradictory definition of normative guiding ideas and concepts in the didactics of the social sciences. In: Journal for Didactics of the Social Sciences. 13th vol.: 59-76.
• Wohnig, A./Zorn, P. (eds.), 2022: Neutrality is not a solution! Politics, education - political education. Bonn.
• Fabian, F./Wohnig, A., 2021: Social work policy as the democratization of social work. In: DREIZEHN. Journal for youth social work. No. 26. p.15-18.
• Weselek, J./Wohnig, A., 2021: Empowerment to assume social and political responsibility as part of global learning - what does neutrality mean here? In: Journal for International Educational Research and Development Education. 44th vol.: 4-10.
• *Wohnig, A., 2021: On the connection between action and learning in the context of the political. Institutional, socio-political and didactic reflections. In: Voluntaris. 9th vol.: 204-217.
• *Wohnig, A., 2021: Working on social challenges together! Potentials of school-extracurricular educational cooperation for the promotion of political action. In: Pedagogical horizons. 5th vol.: 43-59.
• *Wohnig, A., 2021: Inequality and political education. Creating opportunities for political participation as a perspective for political education work. In: heiEDUCATION Journal. Transdisciplinary studies on teacher education. Vol. 3: 73-95.
• *Wohnig, A., 2018: Explaining Political Apathy in German Civic Education Textbooks. In: Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society. Vol. 2: 20-38.
• *Wohnig, A., 2016: Political learning by social engagement? Chances and risks for citizenship education. In: Citizenship, Social and Economics Education. 15th vol.: 244-261.

Research projects

DFG Network: Scientific network to determine the relationship between democracy education and civic education
Funded by the DFG
Project duration: 2021 - 2024
Against the background of current social polarizations and the reaction of (educational) policy to them, discussions and ambiguities have arisen in the field of civic education and democracy education, which are taken as the starting point of the network. The focus is on different concepts of civic education and democracy education that originate from different professions and, according to the network's initial thesis, have had little or no exchange with each other to date. This relative seclusion of the fields creates a lack of knowledge and misconceptions about the 'other'. On the other hand, there is an opportunity to achieve a better understanding, a further development of the underlying themes of the fields, of didactic and pedagogical concepts and an improvement in pedagogical and political education practice through mutual understanding of the terms and concepts of the other field - or between the fields. The network focuses on the fields of democracy education and civic education, taking into account other theories and concepts related to these fields, such as democracy education and democracy promotion. In addition to the 'opportunities' mentioned above, the fundamental aim of the network is joint, interdisciplinary work on the relationship between democracy education and civic education and the identification of similarities and differences at the level of terms and concepts. The network serves to work on joint research questions in an interdisciplinary context. This interdisciplinarity is seen as fundamental in order to be able to work on the questions raised, as it arises from the problem diagnosis of the previous lack of communication between the fields. Against the backdrop of current state control and funding policies, these are central questions in terms of research strategy for the fields of democracy education and political education, which applies to both the respective academic profession and the fields of practice. The relationship to democracy education and democracy promotion should also be taken into account.

Learning from and with each other: Competence teams from extracurricular youth education and social pedagogy to strengthen political education
Funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb)
Project duration: 01.10.2021 - 30.09.2023
The model project creates structures for cooperation between extracurricular political youth education and social pedagogical youth work. At one location, actors in extracurricular political youth education (with a connection to an extracurricular educational institution) work together with actors in social pedagogy in open child and youth work (connection to a youth center, etc.). The cooperations are scientifically monitored with a focus on the conditions for successful cooperation, the professionalism of the various actors, the possibilities of political education in the cooperations, etc.

Socio- and Discourse Linguistics (Faculty I)

friedemann.vogel@uni-siegen.de

Main areas of research

• Specialist communication in various domains, in particular text work and empirically based methodology in law and justice
• Language, collective knowledge and strategic communication: discourse analysis and (contrastive) linguistic image analysis
• Computer-aided corpus hermeneutics, NLP (method for analyzing large amounts of language data)
• Language and digital media
• Misunderstanding, conflicts and methods of dealing with them
• Linguistic democracy and participation research

References to crime

• Linguistic constitution of criminality and criminalization in the genesis of norms (legislation and justice)
• Strategic communication practices of (de)normalization in security and threat discourses (e.g. profiling, internal security)
• Research into linguistic markers of "others" and mechanisms of social exclusion
• Investigating the comprehensibility and impact of legal (including criminal law) texts

Selected publications

* Open Access

• *Vogel, F., 2025; in preparation: Glossary on strategic communication. Volume 2. Siegen: universi (ed. with the research group Diskursmonitor)
• Vogel, F., 2025: New rights, left-wing language? Strategic communication from the right in social media - A workshop report. In: Research Journal Social Movements. 38th vol.: 121-130. https://doi.org/10.1515/fjsb-2025-2013
• Vogel, F., 2024: Politicization of everyday life. Strategic communication in public discourses. Siegen: universi (ed. with the Diskursmonitor research group)
• Vogel, F., 2024: Relativize - contextualize - differentiate: Observations on the current interdiscursive use of three activity verbs. In: KultuRRevolution - Journal for applied discourse theory 43rd vol.
• Vogel, F., 2024: Saying what is - on the positioning of critical discourse research in a state of war. In: M. Attig/K. Jacob/M. Müller/F. Vogel (eds.): Net and work. On the sociality of linguistic action. Berlin: 172-182.
• Deus, F./Vogel, F., 2024: Strategic communication practices in digital discourse arenas. In: J. Androutsopoulos/F. Vogel (eds.): Handbook of language and digital communication. Boston: 393-412.
• *Vogel, F., 2022: Friend and foe terms. In: Research Group Discourse Monitor and Discourse Intervention (ed.): Diskursmonitor. Glossary on strategic communication in public discourses. Published on 05.12.2022. Online at: https://diskursmonitor.de/glossar/freund-und-feind-begriffe/
• *Knobloch, C./Vogel, F., 2022: Political communication. In: Research Group Discourse Monitor and Discourse Intervention (ed.): Diskursmonitor. Glossary on strategic communication in public discourses. Published on 05.07.2022. Online at: https://diskursmonitor.de/glossar/politische-kommunikation
• Research Group Discourse Monitor/Tripps, F./Vogel, F., 2022: Highlights of war discourse: a small inventory selection on public language use in spring 2022. In: DISS-Journal 24th vol.: 61-65.
• Vogel, F., 2022: Corpus linguistics in law - Theoretical considerations and case studies. Berlin. (ed. F. Tripps/F. Vogel/T. Walter)
• Vogel, F., 2022: Identification and authentication in digital discourses. In: E. Gredel et al. (eds.): Discourses digital. Boston.
• *Vogel, F., 2021: Strategic communication. In: Research Group Discourse Monitor and Discourse Intervention (ed.): Diskursmonitor. Glossary on strategic communication in public discourses. Published on 06.12.2021. Online at: https://diskursmonitor.de/glossar/strategische-kommunikation
  (28.12.2021).
• *Vogel, F., 2020: Authentifizierung - Grundlagen einer Theorie zu sozialsymbolischen Praktiken der Identifizierung und Zugangskontrolle. Linguistik Online, 23 vol.: 43-67. https://doi.org/10.13092/lo.105.7372
• *Bäumer, B./Deus, F./Rüdiger, J.O./Tripps, F./Vogel, F., 2019: Die Bedeutung des Adjektivs "geschäftsmäßig" im juristischen Fach- und massenmedialen Gemeinsprachgebrauch. A legal linguistic corpus study as an example of computer-assisted meaning analysis in law. In: LeGes 30 (2019) 3. Available online at: https://leges.weblaw.ch/legesissues/2019/3/die-bedeutung-des-ad_12a4c36d34.html
  (16.11.2019).
• Vogel, F.,2018: Jenseits des Sagbaren - Zum stigmatisierenierenden und ausgrenzenden Gebrauch des Ausdrucks Verschwörungstheorie in der deutschsprachigen Wikipedia. In: Aptum. 14 vol.: 259-288.
• Felder, E./Luth, J./Vogel, F., 2016: "Patient autonomy" and "life protection". An empirical study on agonal centers in the legal discourse on euthanasia. In: Journal for German Linguistics (ZGL). 44th vol.: 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1515/zgl-2016-0001
• Vogel, F., 2012: Linguistics of legal norm genesis. Theory of legal norm discursivity using the example of online searches. Berlin/New York: (= Language and Knowledge 9)

Research projects

Diskursmonitor - Online platform for the clarification and documentation of strategic communication

Project duration: since 2019

The Diskursmonitor is a jointly developed online platform for the clarification and documentation of strategic communication. It provides expert information on the question of how language, images and media are used to pursue political interests: the glossary explains and illustrates important terms from practice and research; the review and the barometer provide insights into the current discourse climate in various areas of society; the workshop offers practical guidelines.

Right-wing discourse strategies against left-wing politics in social media
Funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation
Project duration: 2021 - 2022
with Fabian Deus, University of Siegen

Right-wing populism is also and especially successful among employees. It specifically targets the 'common people' and presents itself as their political representative. Not only can 'neoliberal' programmes be identified, but (supposedly) welfare state and anti-capitalist motifs are increasingly being used: Young right-wingers discuss the social question, read Marx and Adorno and fight the neoliberal zeitgeist and progressive elites. The AfD presents itself as a new workers' party.

Against this backdrop, our project examines right-wing discourse strategies in social networks that challenge left-wing and social politics. The focus is on questions about 1. the central actors, 2. the political semantics (terms, buzzwords, argumentation patterns) that are used or occupied (by political opponents), and 3. patterns of action and discursive practices that can often be observed.