Experts debate lowering criminal liability age to 12

Experts in Vorarlberg are divided over whether Austria should lower the age of criminal liability from 14 to 12, ORF reports. Police figures show that offences recorded against suspects aged 10 to 14 rose from 462 in 2024 to 498 in 2025. There are no figures yet for 2026, but police say the number is at roughly the same level as last year.

A small group of children is responsible for many of the offences. In 2024, five children accounted for about a third of the 462 reports. The offences were mainly thefts and break-ins at businesses. Recent cases in Vorarlberg have included thefts from cars, a vandalised railway station and restaurant break-ins. On Sunday, young people broke into a primary school in Dornbirn.

Vorarlberg’s children’s and youth advocate, Christian Netzer, opposes lowering the age of criminal liability. He says only a handful of young people are involved and argues that problems in their home or wider environment often play a part. Netzer wants stronger child and youth welfare services, which he says can support families and the children’s wider circumstances rather than focusing on an individual alone.

Forensic psychiatrist Reinhard Haller supports changing the law. He says puberty begins three years earlier than when the current rules were drawn up and argues that authorities need a way to respond to offences by 12- to 14-year-olds. Haller stresses that children should not go to prison, but says secure residential group homes and other appropriate structures would need to be established first. He says those structures are not currently in place.

Police record offences allegedly committed by children under 14 and send reports via the public prosecutor’s office to child and youth welfare services and the guardianship court. The NEUSTART association says these bodies can arrange measures including educational support, require parents to pay compensation, or place a child in a supervised group home.

NEUSTART works with a handful of children who have committed offences each year, aiming to prevent further criminal behaviour. Its director, Johannes Pircher-Sanou, says there is no single reason children offend; individual, family, school and social factors can combine. Lack of parental supervision and violence at home can increase the risk, he says. Most children do not offend repeatedly, making early support and avoiding premature stigma important.