Crime spiral

Fatherhood can stop young serial offenders

The 15-year-old has already been sentenced to prison once.

(Bild: Horst Einöder/Flashpictures, Krone KREATIV)

The 15-year-old "problem boy" - he had already committed around 200 crimes before his 14th birthday - is already back in custody. A university professor in Linz explains what can stop the spiral of crime among such young serial offenders.

Around 200 crimes by his 14th birthday: the super-criminal "problem boy" (15) is already behind bars again, more precisely in custody in Leoben. As we reported, he and an accomplice stole a BMW in the Liezen district and went on a 370-kilometer joyride to Vienna.

What is to become of this teenager with a criminal record? Renowned criminal law expert Alois Birklbauer from Linz has a surprising answer: "There are long-term studies in Germany that have looked at such young offenders. There is always a so-called 'spontaneous desistance from crime'. This means that such problematic young people often radically change their behavior in their early 20s. Be it because they find a girlfriend who gives them support or because they become a father. It always depends a lot on the social environment. And unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all solution for achieving stabilization."

You have to look after problematic young people as well as possible, build relationships, nothing else will help.

Jurist Alois Birklbauer über Straffällige

"Prison doesn't make it any better"
The FPÖ in particular is calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be lowered for such minor offenders like the Amen in prayer. A demand that Birklbauer thinks little of. "Prison doesn't make it any better. You have to look after problematic young people as well as possible, build up relationships, nothing else will help. In Germany, 'children's prison', where it was called 'trial detention', was empirically investigated. It turned out that this measure has no effect at all. The children very quickly come to terms with the circumstances, perhaps even think 'it's not so bad anyway' and then, when they are released, they are the super heroes in their bubble."

Switzerland as a role model?
According to Birklbauer, the age of criminal responsibility in Switzerland is from the age of ten. There, however, the public prosecutor is more or less a case manager who works closely with youth welfare services to look after the criminal children.

Nevertheless, JKU Professor Birklbauer does not fundamentally reject restrictions on freedom in extreme cases: "The fact that the care facilities have no possibility at all to stop their charges is actually not true. Something can be done to change the regulations, it doesn't always have to be a new law."