Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law

Object of research:

Object of the work is a comparison of the criminal procedures of young perpetrators with reference to the reasons of custody and their height. There is a debate in Germany on the increase of the sanction practice of growing up delinquents for a long time. Now their procedures shall be taken in the gaze more exactly and compared with such, in which teenagers and young adults were sentenced. Condemnations of the years 2001-2003 from Baden-Württemberg, in which 14-24 year old perpetrators were sentenced to at least 24 months of custody, are drawn on. The examination restricts itself to cases of rape, robbery, (predatory) extortion, murder and homicide. Altogether, approximately 300 perpetrators should be analyzed.

Aim of the project:

It is tried to attain a picture of the crime and the convicted person on the basis of the procedure files, to be able to realise mutualities, as well as differences, between the cases and perpetrator groups. On the basis of the won data it should be determined especially, what effect the idea of education, the German youth court act is based on, has on the condemnations.

According to the Jurisdiction of the German federal court of justice, the education of the delinquent should be given special emphasis, even if, according to § 17 II youth court act, penalty is necessary because of the "weight of the perpetrator's guilt". Therefore the named crimes are well suited for the examination.

Through a comparison of homogeneous offences, committed through juveniles, adolescents and young adults, the question can be answered, in what way the sentence decisions show differences and what is the reason for them. It should be determined especially how the tension relationship between the balance of the delinquent’s guilt and the requirement of individual educational influences is dissolved and in what way different focuses are to be recognized within the different groups.

Condemnations of adolescents are from particular interest, since the application of the youth court act represents the rule, if they are sentenced for a serious crime. With respect to this, it has to be checked whether the principles of the juvenile penal code are consistently applied to this group like it is done with juveniles, or if it is to be seen an approach to the sentences of young adults. In this context, it is also checked broadly, in what way the peculiarities of the procedural law for young defendants reappear in the practice, for example the principles of the accelerated procedures or the premature participation of the youth welfare.

Methodology:

The analysis takes place on the basis of the criminal procedure files, which are analyzed regarding to the project’s aim. For this purpose, a data base was programmed with Microsoft Access. The perpetrator’s curriculum vitae is analyzed, his family background, education, birthplace, incomes etc, also previous convictions, drug problems as well as reports of the youth welfare or other experts.

Victim-referential facts like age, nationality, injuries and resistance actions are saved as well as a description of the modalities of the committed action, like the use of physical force or arms, the height of the damage, motivations etc. Furthermore, detailed information of the crime scene is given.

The opinion of the court itself is analyzed on the one hand with reference to the scope of presentations of the crime and the perpetrator. On the other hand the factors decisive for the degree of punishment and their direction of valuation are picked up.

The subsequent calculation of the data takes place with SPSS mainly.

Project status:

After preparation of the first Chapter and recording of the data, the analysis of the procedure files began in August 2006. The project will be finished in March 2007.

Project funding:

The project is financed by the Max Planck Institute.