The Resurrection of the Victim in Penal Theory

Abstract

On March 25th, 1996, Jan Philipp Reemtsma was kidnapped. He was held prisoner in a small dark cellar for thirty-three days. More than once he thought that his kidnappers would kill him. They did not. Instead he was released, after his family had paid the sum of thirty million DM. Before he became a victim, Reemtsma had not been a public figure, even though he bore famous name of one of the leading tobacco industries. Thanks to his fortune, he belonged—and still belongs—to the endangered species of “Privatgelehrten,” working in, heading, and funding the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. After the crime, not being a public figure was no longer an option. Reemtsma made the best of the situation and published a diary about the kidnapping and the time after. In this book, he reflects, among other things, on what punishment generally does to offenders and to victims. In his view, “[p]unishment shows the