The amendment to Section 64 of the German Criminal Code came into force on 1 October 2023. The amendment includes a specification of the legal term “addiction” (Hang). The presence of a substance use disorder is now required and a resulting permanent and severe impairment in life organization, health, ability to work or performance capability (“Hangkriterien”, “addiction criteria”). In a previous study by the authors (Schwarz und Stubner 2023), a retrospective file analysis was carried out on a sample of 70 male patients whose treatment in the Ansbach Forensic Psychiatric Hospital (Bavaria, Germany) according to Section 64 of the German Criminal Code had ended between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022 (cross-sectional full recording). In the course of an explorative secondary analysis of the data the focus was on the partial aspect of a possible connection between the treatment outcome (conditional release from the measure or early discharge) and in each case the type and number of “addiction criteria”. It was found that patients with regular treatment completion had had on average a higher number of addiction criteria, in particular impairments in the ability to work; however, there were fewer severe psychiatric comorbidities in this group. Some highly significant correlations were identified between the addiction criteria. Overall, the results indicate that the new contouring of the term addiction could lead to a targeted referral of patients who would benefit from the specific treatment provided in a detoxification facility. In addition, the improvements intended by jurisprudence can be mapped using empirical methods.
