Justice - Courts usually sentence young adults like juveniles
If young adults are still under 21 when they commit a crime, they are usually sentenced under juvenile criminal law in Hamburg. In 2022, the Hamburg courts found 501 adolescents guilty. In 87% of cases, the judges applied juvenile criminal law, as the Senate announced in response to a minor question from the CDU parliamentary group. This figure is significantly lower than the national average. According to the latest available figures from the Federal Statistical Office for 2021, only 61% of defendants aged between 18 and 21 were sentenced under the harsher adult criminal law.
According to the Juvenile Courts Act, juvenile criminal law must be applied to adolescents if the accused was equivalent to a juvenile in terms of moral and mental development at the time of the offense or if it is a juvenile offense. In juvenile criminal law, the focus is on education.
The primary aim is not to punish or compensate for wrongdoing, but to prevent the young person concerned from reoffending, explains the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The CDU inquiry was prompted by the verdicts in the trial concerning the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl in Hamburg's Stadtpark. On November 28, a juvenile chamber at the regional court sentenced nine defendants to prison sentences, all under juvenile criminal law. A tenth defendant was acquitted. The juvenile sentences of one to two years for eight defendants were suspended by the chamber for probation or so-called pre-parole - this means that a decision on probation will not be made for another six months. Only one 19-year-old, the only one who was still a minor at the time of the crime, received a harsher sentence of two years and nine months in prison without parole.
CDU parliamentary group leader Dennis Thering explained that it was more than questionable that juvenile criminal law was applied in almost 90 percent of all cases involving adolescents in Hamburg. "It is unacceptable that Hamburg's adolescent offenders are predominantly retarded in their mental development compared to offenders in the rest of Germany." Either clear consequences must be drawn in schools and youth welfare or the Juvenile Courts Act must be amended at federal level. Thering called for a scientific study on the subject.
Small question from the CDU Juvenile Courts Act §105
Read also:
- A clan member is punished here
- Traffic lawyer warns: Don't talk to the police!
- Will he be convicted as Jutta's murderer after 37 years?
- He also wanted to kill his cousin
- The CDU parliamentary group raised concerns about the high number of young adults being sentenced under juvenile criminal law in Hamburg, questioning if this is in line with the developmental capabilities of these individuals compared to their counterparts in other parts of Germany.
- German Justice Ministers emphasize that the main focus of juvenile criminal law processes is not punishment or compensation, but rather the prevention of reoffending among young adults, a principle that is also applied in Hamburg's judicial system.
- In Hamburg courts, the inspection of youth detention facilities and juvenile offender rehabilitation programs are vital elements of the criminal law process, ensuring the young adults' well-being and rehabilitation opportunities.
- The CDU parliamentary group, led by Dennis Thering, proposed either strengthening school curriculums and youth welfare services or amending the Juvenile Courts Act at a federal level to address the discrepancy in sentencing practices between Hamburg and other German states.
- Critics of juvenile criminal law in Hamburg argue that the leniency shown towards young adult offenders may not effectively deter them from committing future crimes, leading to concerns about the safety and well-being of the community.
Source: www.stern.de
