In a Year in Upper Austria

More than 250 juveniles sentenced by the court

A few years ago, a gang of very young repeat offenders gained dubious notoriety in Upper Austria.(Bild: Horst Einöder/Flashpictures)

Justice Minister Sporrer has signaled in the “Krone” that she plans to take a tougher stance against young offenders—a move that plays right into the hands of the Upper Austrian People’s Party (OÖVP), which has long been calling for stricter measures. It is evident that action is needed here in particular: Last year, 258 juveniles were convicted in court.

“Youth gang tormented a 13-year-old for months”;“Network Allegedly Blackmailed Boy into Committing Crimes”—two “OÖ-Krone” headlines from last week exemplify a trend that is as verifiable as it is alarming: Crime among the very young in our society is on the rise. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 75,724 suspects in cases of child and juvenile crime were identified across Austria last year—a 2.3 percent increase compared to 2024. Of these, 1,119 were not even ten years old.

Four out of ten convicted juveniles had prior convictions
In Upper Austria, too, the long-term trend cannot be ignored: While 10,183 suspects under the age of 21 were registered in 2016, that number had risen to 11,499 by 2024. Last year, the number fell slightly again to 10,704. However, another figure also shows that action is needed: According to Statistics Austria, 258 juveniles between the ages of 14 and 17 were convicted in Upper Austrian courts in 2025. The highest number of convictions—119—occurred at the Linz Regional Court, followed by Wels (75), Steyr (40), and Ried im Innkreis (24). What stands out: Four out of ten of these youths already had a criminal record at the time of their trial.

“Taking Them Off the Streets”
The initiative by Justice Minister Anna Sporrer (SPÖ) to be able to place children who have committed crimes in socio-educational residential communities—in other words, to place them under house arrest—fuels the hope of the state ÖVP that its demands for tougher measures against juvenile offenders will now be heard at the federal level: “Especially in the case of violent, repeat, and serious offenders, we need the option to take them off the streets for a time,” says OÖVP Executive Director Florian Hiegelsberger.

Renewed Call for “Warning-Shot Detention”
For him, however, the proposed house arrest is not enough. In addition to sanctions against “careless or uncooperative parents who demonstrably facilitate their children’s criminal development,” Hiegelsberger is also renewing a demand that has previously caused his own federal party to get cold feet: A “warning detention” modeled after the German system—under which juvenile offenders sentenced to probation can be detained for up to four weeks as a deterrent—was rejected by the Parliament’s Justice Committee last year, even with the support of the ÖVP.