In its fight against digital violence toward women, the German Judges Association (Deutscher Richterbund) is warning that prosecutors’ offices suffer significant shortcomings. The association’s federal managing director, Sven Rebehn, told the “Rheinische Post” on Tuesday that “punctual criminal‑law tightening and additional training for investigators are simply not enough”.
Rebehn added that deepfakes, sexually exploitative digital content, images depicting child abuse, and hate‑crime incidents are growing epidemic‑sized online. He says the problem is not a lack of knowledge but glaring personnel deficits in the relevant authorities, which slow effective prosecution of violence against women and children.
He noted that in many under‑staffed prosecutor offices, “three investigators have to do the work of four, and cases are therefore being prematurely dismissed more often. Politicians are not fulfilling their promise to protect those affected”.
Rebehn warned that if state finance ministers continue to refuse to better staff and adequately equip prosecutor offices to handle their expanding workload, even tougher criminal laws will ultimately lose their force.
