As of: March 27, 2024, 10:58 a.m
By: Lisa Fischer
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There are more and more knife attacks (sample photo) © dpa
More and more cases of knife attacks end up before district judge Johann Steigmayer.
In the interview he talks about the development and the background.
Fürstenfeldbruck - Young men who stab others after going to a disco or young people who randomly attack a victim with a knife in front of a shopping center: These and similar incidents have occurred in the Fürstenfeldbruck district in the past.
Depending on the sentence, the offenses end up before Judge Johann Steigmayer at the Fürstenfeldbruck District Court.
And the incidents are increasing, observes Steigmayer.
In the Tagblatt interview, as deputy press spokesman for the district court, he reports who the people are who are walking around armed with a knife.
Again and again you read in police reports that young people armed with knives are caught by the police or even attack each other. Many cases end up in court. In your opinion, has the situation gotten worse?
Yes definitely!
I have been working in the criminal field, first as a prosecutor and then as a judge, for over 30 years.
The situation feels like it has changed massively over the last ten years.
In the direction of groups of young men banding together and then becoming conspicuous for violent crimes.
These groups then commit crimes of theft or robbery, including with weapons, and/or bodily harm.
In recent years there has been a massive increase in such group-specific violent crimes.
What does that mean in numbers?
The number of new juvenile criminal cases has increased significantly in recent years.
Ultimately, a judge has to deal with around 550 juvenile criminal cases and between 70 to 80 juvenile jury trials every year.
How do these group and knife attacks come about? Does this mean young men go out and randomly attack someone?
That is certainly not the case.
First of all, it can be stated that social problems have become greater in recent years and that these are manifesting themselves in the behavior of young people.
What is also striking about these people is that they also appear through so-called “truancy” and the resulting administrative offense proceedings.
These people only gain self-affirmation from friends who have the same social background.
You don't meet like other young people in sports clubs, for example, but rather when you "hang out", for example at the "gas station" - the young people's original sound.
Violent attacks are usually not planned.
If weapons such as knives are carried, which is becoming more and more common, violence occurs that did not occur in previous years in my professional work.
I am thinking here of a case that led to an attempted homicide in Fürstenfeldbruck.
The main perpetrator was sentenced to a long youth prison sentence.
Why do these people even have a knife with them?
The question posed to the respective defendants is often answered by saying that they think it is necessary to be armed in order to defend themselves from other people who are also armed.
To what extent can you as a judge make a difference?
In order to break the spiral of violence, we are happy to impose gun bans in such cases.
These are then communicated to the relevant police station with a request to monitor them.
Violations of such weapons bans can result in up to four weeks of arrest as a result of disobedience.
The young person must know that violations of court instructions will result in immediate and noticeable reactions.
Who are the people who walk around armed with knives or even attack?
These are mostly young people and in the vast majority of cases young men.
These people often have a migrant background with a completely different socialization background and a set of values that do not easily correspond to ours.
In this culture, too, an understanding of roles and images of men are conveyed that seem rather strange to us and thus promote escalations of violence.
Of course, it must be made clear that these problem structures also occur among people from the local culture without a migration background, but not to this extent.
This problem becomes even more acute when people from other cultures come to the country, for whom, due to their age, a large part of their upbringing took place in the other culture.
If the school requirements are then lacking, it is hardly possible, according to court experience, to create a basic framework for training and the transfer of values.
Does this mean that if young people went to school, the problem would no longer exist?
I think that all-day schooling and early intensive preschool care could counteract this development.
You shouldn't be under the illusion that schools can do everything.
If in these problem cases it has to be determined that these people are not subject to the influence of parents, if any, but also of youth welfare offices, then the courts will also reach their limits.
How do you react as a judge?
Juvenile criminal law is correctly designed as educational criminal law.
The task of the juvenile criminal judge is to have an educational influence on young people and adolescents.
Juvenile criminal law gives judges a range of options to influence the development of these people in an appropriate and appropriate manner.
As a rule, these are offers of help to the respective people in an attempt to have a positive influence on the development of these people.
Only if such offers of help are not accepted or are not effective can so-called discipline measures, such as arrest, be imposed for up to four weeks.
How do young people react to such punishments?
The feedback on serving juvenile detention gives cause for hope.
Some people have already said: “Never again”.
Only as a last resort, if arrest is not sufficient, will the imposition of a youth penalty be considered.
You can find even more current news from the Fürstenfeldbruck district at Merkur.de/Fürstenfeldbruck.