Adult criminal law

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Adult criminal law is the criminal law and criminal procedure law applicable to adults , also known as general criminal law .

Age of criminal responsibility occurs upon completion of the 14th year of life ( § 19 StGB ), the age of majority on completion of the 18th year of life ( § 2 BGB). For children, neither the Criminal Code nor the Code of Criminal Procedure apply, for young people and adolescents only unless otherwise specified in the Youth Courts Act (JGG) ( Section 10 StGB). According to § 1 JGG, the Youth Courts Act applies if a young person or an adolescent commits a misconduct that is punishable under the general regulations. The StGB is therefore applicable to young people under the age of 18 despite being of criminal responsibility according to Section 1 (2) and (3) JGG not and can only be applied to adolescents under the age of 21 despite of age after special examination ( Section 105 , Section 106 JGG) Adult criminal law applies without restriction from the age of 21.

While adult criminal law focuses on the culpable commission of an act in terms of the type and weight of the punishments , juvenile criminal law aims at a so-called legal probation , in which the focus is on education for lawful behavior.

The independent term takes account of the fact that juvenile criminal law has become an area of ​​its own in criminal law since the introduction of the Juvenile Court Act in 1923. Before this development, there was of course no need for this distinction, since general criminal law was applied equally to adults as well as to young people and adolescents.

While the non-application of adult criminal law up to the age of 17 is undisputed, there is a legal political debate about its applicability to young adults up to 20 years of age.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. BGH, judgment of August 9, 2001 - 1 StR 211/01
  2. ↑ Jochen Ohliger: Juvenile criminal law / demarcation from adult criminal law Solinger Tageblatt , February 11, 2015.
  3. ↑ Heribert Ostendorf : Aims and tasks of juvenile criminal law April 24, 2018.
  4. ↑ cf. For example juvenile criminal law: Should 18 to 20 year-olds be punished more often than adults? Bayerische Staatszeitung , December 5, 2019.