12,000 people demand punishment of perpetrators

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Luise F.* (†12) died of more than 30 stab wounds. The girl was killed by two classmates (12, 13), who would have been her best friends. The cruel case from Germany causes terror beyond the country’s borders.

The fact that the perpetrators will be prosecuted under criminal law is also hotly debated. This is because juvenile criminal law in Germany only applies from the age of 14. As “Focus” writes, lowering the age of criminal responsibility has been discussed repeatedly in the past. The Luise case is now starting the debate again.

In the meantime, an online petition has even been started because of her murder. The demand: criminal responsibility for murder must be reduced so that the two perpetrators in the Luise case can be punished. The petition seems popular: it is (Wednesday afternoon) already supported by 12,000 people.

Children’s actions are becoming “more ruthless and violent”

As the “Siegener Zeitung” writes, the German Police Union of North Rhine-Westphalia (DPOLG), among others, supports the reduction of criminal liability.

“Police officers are increasingly confronted in their daily work with the fact that not only young people, but also children under the age of 14 who are not yet criminally responsible commit criminal offenses,” says a spokesman for the newspaper. Their actions are always more ruthless and violent. The union therefore demands that children from the age of 12 can be prosecuted.

As the lawyer Steffen Hörning from Göttingen explains to “Focus”, the 14-year limit was set decades ago. In the meantime, one should “rethink”. And, “Nobody wants to lower the age of criminal liability to 8, 9 or 10.” But at 12 be realistic.

German politicians have also spoken in favor of lowering the age of criminal responsibility in the past. For example, Falko Liecke (50) of the CDU in Berlin-Neukölln. He would, he told the “Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland” (RND), welcome it if juvenile criminal law would apply from the age of 12. This would allow “another form of intervention”.

“Would you put a ten-year-old in prison?”

Nevertheless, there are countless dissenting voices. Thomas Bliesener, director of the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony, does not mind lowering the age of criminal responsibility: “In the long term, we do not see an increase in violent crime and serious violent crime among children and young people,” Bliesner said in an interview with “RND”.

Criminal law scholar Jörg Kinzig sees this too. “Despite the terrible events at Freudenberg, there is no reason to shake it up,” Kinzig told “Focus”. The criminal liability of 14 years has proven its worth.

Criminal psychologist Rudolf Egg takes the same line. “Would you put a ten-year-old in prison? Probably not,” Egg said in an interview with “SWR.” Instead of blaming criminal responsibility, one should ask how to deal with children who commit such crimes.

Theresia Höynck, professor of child and youth crime at the University of Kassel, sees it that way. She tells Focus: “Juvenile detention centers are not the right place to deal with high profile youth under 14, educational and therapeutic settings and concepts are needed here.” (dzc)

* Name known

Source: Blick