Overview
- Justice Minister Constanze Geiert, in interviews published Monday, detailed a plan to bring 12- and 13-year-olds who offend before a prosecutor and a police officer to spell out what they did and what could follow.
- The proposed track, called a responsibility procedure, would not change Germany’s criminal liability age of 14 and is designed as an early intervention to deter repeat offenses.
- Geiert also proposed lifting the maximum juvenile sentence for crimes like murder and manslaughter from 10 to 15 years, framing it as a response to the most serious violence.
- She said Saxony will submit the new procedure to the Bundesrat, yet noted that federal delays on a promised study of youth crime have stalled legal changes for now, so the state plans faster operational steps it can take on its own.
- Police data show violent suspects among children in Saxony more than doubled from 2019 to 2024, and Geiert cautioned against blaming migration alone, pointing to growing violence among young German extremists as well.