Measures called for

Criminal streak sometimes already apparent at the age of 4

(Bild: Wenzel Markus, Krone KREATIV)

Due to the wave of child offenders, there have been calls for the age of criminal responsibility to be lowered. At a background discussion on Thursday, Michael Lindner, Upper Austrian State Councillor for Child and Youth Welfare, called for better opportunities for the prevention, early detection and placement of young delinquents.

Serious criminals who have not yet reached the age of criminal responsibility - they have been the talk of the town in recent months. "Such children usually become conspicuous for the first time between the ages of four and eight," says Sonja Wurm, child and adolescent psychologist at the Neuromed Campus in Linz.

Networking enables an overall view
Reinhold Rampler from Kinder- und Jugendhilfe OÖ adds: "Maybe the doctor notices something, the nursery school teacher too, and the administrative authority as well." This is why Provincial Councillor Lindner is calling for all support systems, including child and youth welfare, administrative authorities, socio-educational institutions, teachers, psychiatrists, the judiciary and the police, to be networked. Such a working group is intended to prevent behavior that endangers oneself and others.

Only a tiny proportion are criminals
Compulsory placement in "social-psychiatric residential groups" could also help. Out of around 270,000 children in Upper Austria, only around two dozen are repeat offenders. What is worrying, however, is that children are becoming unschoolable earlier and earlier - from the age of eight - due to dangerous behavior.