What is juvenile justice?

Basically, a distinction must be made between juvenile criminal law and adult criminal law. What is relevant depends fundamentally on the age of the defendant and can have a huge impact on the associated penalty, since the goal of juvenile justice is not the punishment of the offender, but rather the education of the perpetrator is intended. Accordingly, § 2 para. 1 Juvenile Court Act (JGG) states that both the legal consequences and the entire procedure are to be aligned primarily with the idea of ​​education.

The crucial question, however, is when the juvenile justice system will be applied. In this regard, a distinction must be made between "adolescents" and "adolescents". A juvenile is an offender who is between 14 and 17 years old, whereby § 3 JGG states that a juvenile can only be held criminally liable if he is mature enough at the time of the deed after his moral and spiritual development, to see the injustice of the act and to act according to its insight. If this is not the case, he can not be punished. Otherwise, he will be held criminally responsible, but juvenile criminal law must be applied.

If the offender between 18 and 20 years old, he is indeed referred to as "adolescent" but in principle already sentenced to adult criminal law. A decisive norm which may lead to a deviation from this principle is § 105 para. 1 JGG. According to this provision can(!!) even in an adolescent juvenile justice to apply, if

• the overall assessment of the personality of the perpetrator taking into account the environmental conditions shows that he was at the time of the crime after his moral and spiritual development even a teenager or
• the nature, circumstances or motivations of the offense are a juvenile offense.

Put simply, both in the presence of maturity delays or in typical juvenile misdemeanors, the perpetrator is sentenced to juvenile justice. A maturity delay can then be answered in the affirmative if there are considerable development deficits and the perpetrator still has to be seen as an "unfinished, unsettled" character, such as consuming drugs, growing up in the home, lack of family ties, lack of life prospects, being unemployed.

However, it is crucial that the assessment always depends on the timing of the offense and not on the time of the conviction.

Whether one can call an act a "juvenile offense" depends fundamentally on the objective factual circumstances as well as on the subjective motives for the crime. Thus juvenile recklessness, social immaturity, peer pressure, easy influenceability, impersonation or courage tests can be typical signs of the presence of a juvenile offense.

As already mentioned, the application of juvenile justice has a particular effect on the legal consequences, since it is not the punishment of the perpetrator but the idea of ​​education that is in the foreground. For this purpose, the JGG provides several sanction options:

• "Educative"

According to § 9 JGG one understands under education measures the giving of instructions, as well as the order, assistance to the education to claim. As a rule, the court issues instructions, which may include the provision of work services, participation in a social training course, or bringing about victim-offender compensation.

• "Disciplinary measures"

If the court considers that educational measures are not sufficient, it can impose breeding equipment in accordance with §§ 13 ff. JGG. Breeding means the warning, the issuing of conditions and the juvenile detention.

• "Youth custody"

Furthermore, the court has the juvenile penalty under § 17 ff. JGG available, according to which the perpetrator must serve in a corresponding institution for the duration of 6 months up to 5 years, a juvenile penalty. In terms of duration, it is necessary to observe § 18 para. 1 S. 2 JGG, according to which the maximum youth road 10 is years, if the crime is a crime for which, according to general criminal law, a maximum penalty of more than 10 Years imprisonment is threatened.

However, as the youth penalty is considered as a "last resort", the requirements for a juvenile penalty are far higher than the requirements for imprisonment in general criminal law. In addition to the above-mentioned educational concept plays beyond the fact that the adolescent or adolescents by the juvenile punishment is already subject to stigmatization at an early age, a significant role in the context of the conviction.

If you have any further questions, I am at your disposal as a competent contact person. Please contact me by e-mail or by phone, so that we can arrange a meeting as soon as possible and we can coordinate the further procedure together.