Page:CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110024-7.pdf/30

 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110024-7

Other crimes in descending order are assault, various sexual offenses, aiding and abetting, and forgery.

There are no data on drug addiction, but fragmentary reports indicate that it is not a significant problem in East Germany. The rate of newly reported cases of syphilis is acceptably low (in 1970, 0.2 new cases per 10,000 of the population), but gonorrhea (13.8 new cases per 10,000 of the population) not only persists but seems to be rising as traditional methods of contraception are abandoned in favor of the pill. Alcoholism appears to be a problem. Per capita consumption of wine, beer, and hard liquor is less than in West Germany, but total consumption of alcohol is rising with hard liquor on the verge of replacing beer as the chief source of alcohol consumption.

An increasing problem for the East German authorities is juvenile delinquency, but their concept of the term is much broader than in the West. The growth of juvenile delinquency contrasts with the decline of adult criminality, and the share of juvenile crime in total crime far exceeds the juvenile age group's share in the total population. About half of all crimes committed in recent years have been committed by persons under 25; the age groups with the highest incidence of criminality are 18 to 21 and 16 to 18.

The increase of juvenile delinquency in a society which has devoted great effort to bringing up a new generation dedicated to socialist ideals has been a subject of great pain to the regime. Unable to admit failures on their part, the East German leaders attribute the spread of youth crime to negative influences from the West, especially from western radio and television. Furthermore, East German parents have been charged with a poor job in bringing up their children, and alcohol misuse has been cited as a cause for juvenile crime. To fight against this problem the Free German Youth (FDJ) organization has been given a mandate to assist the police in maintaining public order and to undertake propaganda programs pointing out the consequences of antisocial behavior.

F. Health

Health and sanitary standards are among the best in Eastern Europe and are comparable in most respects to those in Western Europe. This is borne out by comparisons of infant mortality rates and life expectancy at birth, two generally accepted indices of the state of public health (Figure 19). East Germany has benefited from a long tradition of good medical services, but the regime's early efforts to eliminate private practice by physicians and dentists induced many medical practitioners to flee to West Germany, thereby reducing medical care to levels that for many years were barely adequate. Encouragement of medical education, cutting off the escape route to West Berlin in 1961, and continued toleration of private practice has brought some improvement and prospects for further gains.

1. Medical facilities

Communist regimentation of the medical services—especially moves in 1958 to eliminate private practice—was a major factor in the emigration of many physicians. Nearly 5,000 physicians and dentists fled before August 1961; in 1958 alone, approximately 10% of the total number of physicians left the country. Between 1961 and 1970, however, with escape cut off and the regime making a major effort to train physicians, the number increased from 14,600 to 27,300. In 1970 there was 1 physician for every 630 inhabitants, a considerable improvement over the

25

APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110024-7