Juvenile criminal law applies to minors aged 14 to 17. It may also apply to young adults (aged 18–20) if they are still comparable to juveniles in terms of maturity. Juvenile offenders or young adults treated as juveniles are not subject to the stricter sentencing framework of adult criminal law. Sentences are generally more lenient compared to those for adults.
Recent data shows that, nationwide, juvenile law is increasingly being replaced by stricter adult criminal law in the sentencing of young adults. While nearly 70% of young adults were sentenced under juvenile law in 2012, this dropped to 62.3% in 2015 and to just 60% in 2022. Regional differences are significant:
In 2023, juvenile criminal law was applied in 83% of young adult cases in Hamburg. In Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, the rate was 67% and 66.6% respectively, while Saxony-Anhalt and Baden-Württemberg stood at 45%, Saxony at 43%, and Brandenburg at only 41%. No official data exists for Berlin, but according to Hannes Honecker’s own estimate, the rate there is more comparable to Hamburg than to Brandenburg.
Statistics further reveal that non-German young adults are more often sentenced under adult criminal law than their German counterparts. It is also notable that the more serious the offense, the more likely juvenile law is to be applied.
The decline in the application of juvenile law to young adults is rooted in prevailing societal sentiments and, as is often the case, in election campaigning. In September 2024, CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz stated in Bild newspaper that he could not understand how people could advocate for voting rights at age 16, while criminal responsibility for young adults was treated differently. Merz here confused criminal responsibility (which begins at age 14 in Germany) with the application of juvenile criminal law, which can indeed include sentences—up to 15 years in the case of young adults. Nevertheless, juvenile courts continue to face accusations of being too lenient or “soft on crime.” There are also political calls, including from the AfD, to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 12.
Such political statements and demands are likely to influence juvenile courts. According to one survey, around 10% of juvenile judges report seriously considering how their rulings might be perceived by the public. It appears that calls for tougher treatment of young adults are a recurring demand from conservative factions—often ignoring modern psychological insights into youth development—who seem nostalgic for punitive approaches reminiscent of early 20th-century “black pedagogy.”
Juvenile Law Young Adults Criminal Procedure