Abstract:
The present analysis proceeds from the current discussion on deinstitutionalization and community treatment as alternatives to costly institutionalized forms of controlling deviant behavior which, moreover, violate civil rights. Within this framework of ideological change, corresponding shifts in the boundaries between the legal system and the treatment sector are discussed. This is exemplified by the statuary changes on involuntary commitment: as in the U .S.A., a revision was also introduced in Switzerland in the early seventies which aimed at granting equal legal protection for the individuals concerned. The present case study gives an exemplary description of this legal field as weil as a dimensional analysis of the norm settingprocesses starting from the preliminary hearings up to the ratified law on the „Fürsorgerische Freiheitsentziehung". Two aspects are investigated in particular: first, to what extent controversial changes in the draft as weil as the interpretation of indefinite legal concepts (elastic clauses) support the thesis that the medical model has become increasingly relevant for the control of deviant behavior; second, if the new statutes in fact effectively limit the control potential.