What was it like to live under the police and a criminal justice system in a socialist society and in a country governed by Marxist-Leninists? This is the first book-length study of criminal justice in the German Democratic Republic. Based on first-hand research conducted over a six-year period from 1985 to the present, the case study analyzes how the society has been transformed politically, socially, and economically since the 1989 revolution and reincorporation with the rest of Germany. This volume should be of interest to students, teachers, and professionals in criminal justice and sociology, political science, law, and European history.

This analysis of policing in a socialist society reports on the work of the People's Police and the State Security Police and how principles of criminal justice and methods of governance changed with the dissolution of the GDR. The study relies on primary source materials and extensive interviews of police professionals and academicians in the field of criminal justice.