The violent death of a 12-year-old shocks Germany.
The alleged perpetrators remain unpunished.
Is that appropriate?
The debate begins.
Freudenberg/Munich - Freudenberg.
A small town with barely 18,000 inhabitants.
With many idyllic half-timbered houses in the hilly low mountain range of the Siegerland.
For a few days, nothing has been the same here, a little more than 70 kilometers west of the Cologne-Bonn-Düsseldorf metropolitan region.
Luise F. case: Twelve-year-old girl is allegedly stabbed to death by her peers in North Rhine-Westphalia
Because: Freudenberg, a climatic health resort, involuntarily and suddenly hit the headlines throughout Germany when Luise F. (12) was killed.
According to the results of the investigation, the young girl was allegedly stabbed to death by two classmates of the same age, aged twelve and 13.
After the horrific homicide in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), an intense debate has erupted across Germany as to whether the two suspected perpetrators should be considered criminally responsible or not.
By law, they are not criminally responsible and therefore remain unpunished.
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Suddenly in focus because of the Luise F. case: the idyllic climatic health resort of Freudenberg in Siegerland.
© IMAGO / Funke Photo Services
The legal policy (legal) spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Günter Krings, has now called for a possible lowering of the criminal responsibility limit to under 14 years to at least be discussed.
“Even children know that they are not allowed to kill.
It's shocking that two girls killed another girl," Krings told the
editorial network Germany (RND)
: "We need to debate whether the age of criminal responsibility for serious crimes needs to be lowered.
Because the most serious criminal offenses – such as homicides in particular – are not juvenile misconduct.
Even children know that they are not allowed to kill.”
The case of Luise F.: After the killing of girls by people of the same age, Germany is debating the age of criminal responsibility
According to Krings, there is an urgent need to examine whether there is an increase in serious crimes committed by children.
“Within civil law, our law also allows for the deprivation of liberty of children and young people who are delinquent by court order.
That is why the federal states have to provide such closed facilities more strongly again, ”explained the 53-year-old from the Rhineland.
He is not alone in his demands.
Because of the Luise F. case, the NRW police union is also demanding a reorganization of the criminal responsibility and, in individual cases, imprisonment.
Even children know that they are not allowed to kill.
It's upsetting that two girls killed another girl.
Günter Krings, legal policy (legal) spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group
There are conflicting opinions - even within the police force.
“Freudenberg is a terrible individual case that affects people.
But something like that actually happens very, very rarely," says WDR Nadine Bals, Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Police and Public Administration in North Rhine-Westphalia.
She explained that according to police crime statistics, there have been between four and 21 cases of attempted and completed homicide by underage children every year over the past 20 years.
Case Luise F.: The suspected perpetrators are twelve and 13 years old - and already criminally responsible?
The criminologist Ralf Kölbel, a professor at the University of Munich, sees no reason to change the criminal responsibility limit and lower the age for it.
“In my view, moving the criminal age limit downwards is out of the question.
This is not considered at all in the scientific discussion.
If so, then one thinks about moving the criminal age limit upwards, ”explained the criminal lawyer of the WDR.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) had stated that children under the age of 14 would not be prosecuted, "but our legal system knows other ways to react, such as child and youth welfare law and family law".
According to the Criminal Code, a person is not guilty if they have not reached the age of 14 at the time of the alleged offence.
The two girls who are said to have killed Luise F. near Freudenberg have since been handed over to the youth welfare office.
The whole of Germany is talking about what they did.
(pm)
List of rubrics: © IMAGO/Rene Traut
