Youth penalty
The Jugendstrafe is in the German juvenile law specially for adolescents (17 years of age to 14) and adolescents (18 through 20 years) designed imprisonment . It is the only criminal punishment provided for in juvenile criminal law and thus stands out from the discipline and educational measures otherwise provided for in juvenile criminal law (see Section 13 (3) JGG). It may only be imposed because of so-called harmful tendencies or because of the particular gravity of the guilt ( Section 17 (2 ) JGG ). The age of the offender when the offense was committed is decisive for the application of juvenile punishment, not when it was sentenced ( Section 1 (2) JGG). According to this, a juvenile sentence may also have to be imposed on persons of legal age, which would then have to be served in a “normal” penal institution .
Juvenile criminal law is only applicable to adolescents if the overall assessment of the perpetrator's personality, taking into account the environmental conditions, shows that at the time of the act he was still tied to a young person in terms of his moral and intellectual development, or if it is typical youth misconduct. If none of these requirements are met, normal criminal law will apply. In 2010, juvenile justice was applied to 66 percent of convicted adolescents.
Duration and execution
The youth penalty generally lasts at least 6 months and a maximum of 5 years ( Section 18 (1) sentence 1 JGG). If the act is a crime for which a maximum sentence of more than ten years' imprisonment is threatened according to general criminal law, the maximum is 10 years (Section 18 (1) sentence 2 JGG). If an adolescent (i.e. 18 to 20 year olds) is found guilty of murder, the maximum is 15 years if this is necessary because of the particular gravity of the guilt ( Section 105 (3 ) sentence 2 JGG, new regulation since the beginning of September 2012) .
The youth sentence is usually served in juvenile detention centers (for Baden-Württemberg: § 3 JStVollzG). Since January 1, 2008 at the latest, there have been legal regulations for juvenile prisoners. Each federal state has created its own JStVollzG, since the execution of sentences has become a matter for the federal states since the federalism reform.
Purpose of punishment
The purpose of the juvenile punishment is, in addition to the concept of education, the atonement of guilt. According to the case law of the BGH, however, the youth penalty may not be based on considerations that deterrence should be effected (so-called prohibition of general preventive grounds). The protection of the general public is also only given secondary consideration compared to the personality and guilt of the perpetrator. In contrast to the adult execution, the execution manager is responsible for monitoring the execution of sentences ( Section 82 JGG); this is the juvenile judge responsible in the district court district of the prison.
Severity of guilt
The severity of the guilt ( § 17 Abs. 2 JGG, § 105 Abs. 3 S. 2 JGG) is characterized by the objective circumstances of the crime (success of the crime) and the subjective characteristics, i.e. the perpetrator's motives. Both must be present together.
Harmful tendencies
If the offender shows that he will continue to commit crimes of considerable weight due to the lack of socialization (lack of ability or upbringing), harmful tendencies can be determined after an overall balance between the biography of the offender, the current living conditions and the behavior accompanying the offense, which justify a youth penalty could. In the event of a finding, a report from the youth court assistance service is required, which contacts the accused during the proceedings and records the results in the youth court assistance report.
probation
The suspension of a youth sentence on probation is based on § 21 JGG.
If at the time of the judgment it cannot be determined with the necessary certainty whether harmful tendencies have emerged in the criminal offense that justify the execution of the youth penalty , the juvenile court can suspend the decision on the imposition of a youth penalty according to § 27 JGG . As with the prison sentence, there is also the possibility of suspending the execution of the youth sentence in whole or after serving part of it on probation if the social forecast is favorable. The youth sentence, which has been fully suspended, and the preliminary probation ( § 61 JGG) can be combined with youth arrest since 2013 ("warning shot arrest").
Reform movements
In view of the individual cases reported in the tabloid press, at the end of 2003 several parties called for the maximum duration of youth sentences to be increased to fifteen years. However, this was almost unanimously rejected by the experts because the purpose of juvenile criminal law is not met with it, the application of juvenile punishment for a duration of more than seven years nationwide is below the alcohol range of all convicts and, rather, crime is better through sensible integration and social policy fought than would be deterred by high penalties. The overcrowding in youth institutions would be exacerbated by higher penalties. Incidentally, the five-year term could only serve the purpose of retaliation for guilt.
At the beginning of September 2012, the maximum youth sentence for adolescents in the event of murder was increased to 15 years ( Section 105 (3) sentence 2 JGG)
According to the German Association for Juvenile Courts and Juvenile Court Assistance (DVJJ), juvenile detention has entered the legislative agenda of the political parties through its operation. The JGG has existed since 1923, but has only rudimentarily regulated juvenile prisoners. Further regulations were made up to 2008 by the Prison Act (StvollzG). The Federal Constitutional Court decided by judgment of the Second Senate on May 31, 2006 (file number 2 BvR 1673/04 - 2 BvR 2402/04) that the execution of juvenile prisoners requires its own legal basis. This was created until 2008 by the federal states ( Youth Prison Act ).
See also
Web links and literature
- Kerstin Reich: Are young foreigners more criminals? Crime among young people with a migration background. In: Zeitschrift Sicherheit und Kriminalität - Issue 1/2003, Ed .: State Center for Political Education Baden-Württemberg (LpB Ba-Wü). ( online )
- BVerfG: Judgment 2 BvR 1673/04, 2 BvR 2402/04 of May 31, 2006 on the constitutionality of the youth penal system
- SM Giebel, A. Taefi: Approaches to police prevention in juvenile offenders - juvenile detention and relapse. Der Kriminalist, 02/2009
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.servat.unibe.ch/dfr/bs015224.html BGH, judgment of November 11, 1960 - 4 StR 387/60; BGH, decision of December 1, 1981 - 1 StR 634/81
