A motion presented at the CDU’s national party conference in Stuttgart proposes lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12, as reported by Bild’s Saturday edition citing an initiative from the Berlin CDU state association. Under current law, children under 14 are considered legally incapable of guilt.
The proposal calls for an amendment to Section 19 of the German Penal Code. From the children’s twelfth birthday onward, they could be held criminally liable if they demonstrate sufficient maturity. A judicial “responsibility procedure” would ensure that educational measures are mandated by court rather than waiting until the youth services intervene.
Advocates argue that today’s children develop an awareness of wrongdoing at a much earlier age thanks to the internet and social media. They claim that a 12‑year‑old who knows they are committing an offense should be expected to stand up for it. The draft also points out that criminal gangs and clan‑based groups deliberately exploit the age of innocence to enlist children in violent acts, stating that organized crime, including syndicates from the EU and abroad, purposefully takes advantage of this legal gap.
The motion further claims that crimes are becoming increasingly brutal and frequent, and that victims and their families find it difficult to accept that perpetrators of severe offenses receive no legal consequences because of their age.
