After the double murder in Aschaffenburg, allegedly committed by a mentally ill Afghan man, the Interior Senator of Bremen, Ulrich Mäurer (SPD), has reportedly invited the Interior Ministers of the federal states and the federal government to a special conference. According to the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”(Saturday editions), citing security sources, the meeting is set to take place on Monday.
The conference is expected to discuss the handling of mentally ill offenders, a topic that has gained attention in the wake of the Aschaffenburg incident. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) praised her Bavarian counterpart, Joachim Herrmann (CSU), on Thursday for announcing a review of how to proceed more decisively against mentally ill perpetrators of violence. The CDU’s General Secretary, Carsten Linnemann, has recently called for a register of mentally ill offenders, a proposal that has received initial support within the SPD.
However, the German Society for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology (DGPPN) rejects the idea of such a register, citing concerns about the stigmatization of affected individuals. The medical-scientific professional organization emphasizes that people with mental illnesses are not inherently more violent than those without and that the most effective means of preventing violence is early, coordinated and intensive treatment of individuals with untreated mental illnesses that pose a risk of violence. This, the organization notes, requires more resources.