– Two children probably killed a 12-year-old in Freudenberg. This causes horror nationwide and raises many questions: What leads children to commit such brutal crimes? And how does the judiciary deal with it?
“Stunned – speechless – helpless”: Three words are written on one page in the condolence book for the 12-year-old Luise who was killed. They express what many people in the small town of Freudenberg near Siegen in North Rhine-Westphalia are feeling right now. Since the weekend, people have been mourning the 12-year-old schoolgirl who was killed on the way home in a forest after visiting a friend. The alleged perpetrators? Even children. Two 12- and 13-year-old girls confessed to having stabbed Luise numerous times.
Just last year, a murder in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, in which a child was involved, caused a stir: A 14-year-old and a 13-year-old who was not criminally responsible suffocated a 15-year-old in June 2022. In 2016, a 13-year-old in Bad Schmiedeberg (Saxony-Anhalt) repeatedly hit a boy of the same age in the head so violently that he died.
What drives children to commit horrible crimes?
The fate of the young people who were killed moves many people, and one question keeps coming up: Why? Why do children commit such cruel acts?
In the case of twelve-year-old Luise from Freudenberg, the investigating authorities are very reluctant to answer these questions. The alleged perpetrators must be protected – precisely because they are still children themselves, emphasized the chief public prosecutor in Koblenz, Mario Mannweiler. He says only this much: “What might be a motive for a child to commit an act might not be apparent to an adult.” In any case, in view of the many stab wounds suffered by the victim, it is reasonable to assume “that some emotions played a role.”
In general, the question of why children become murderers has not yet been adequately researched, explains Christian Pfeiffer, criminologist and former director of the Lower Saxony Criminological Research Institute Focus-Online. “Such atrocious acts of violence do not appear out of nowhere. They have a history.” According to Pfeiffer, one’s own experiences of suffering always play a role. “You always become a victim first, then a perpetrator. That’s especially true for children and young people. “Hate, anger and the feeling of your own powerlessness” are often the background. The criminologist emphasizes to the newspaper that nobody is born a murderer.
In his book “When Young People Kill” (CHBeck Verlag 2019), the Marburg child and adolescent psychiatrist Helmut Remschmidt analyzes cases from recent years. After that, no one becomes a criminal just because of a difficult childhood. A number of factors are decisive here: according to the expert, personal experiences of violence, alcohol and drug consumption or group dynamics can play a role.
How common is violent crime by children?
It is rare for children under the age of 14 to commit violent crimes such as serious physical injury, sexual abuse, manslaughter or murder. In 2021, the number of suspected children in this area increased nationwide compared to the previous year (7477 to 7103). Compared to 2019, however, there was a decrease of around ten percent in 2021.
The absolute numbers for crimes against life are extremely low: in 2021 there were 19 suspected children in this area nationwide, including four girls. The numbers vary greatly from year to year, in the past 20 years they have been between four and 21 suspects per year. For classification: According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 8.5 million children under the age of 14 lived in Germany this year.
Children suspected of murder: what happens to them?
There are no criminal consequences for children under the age of 14 after such crimes. You are fundamentally innocent – even in the case of a crime as serious as murder or manslaughter. Because it is assumed that they do not yet have a sufficient overview of the consequences of their actions.
At the end of the investigation, the public prosecutor’s office passes the case on to the youth authorities. According to experts, the measures taken there depend heavily on the individual case. It is conceivable that a child will receive psychiatric treatment, possibly in a closed facility. It is also possible that the parents will receive help with bringing up the child – or that the child will be placed in a home or with a foster family for a while. However, the legal hurdles for separating from the parents against their will are high.
