The young prisoner’s dilemma: Juvenile recidivism in Germany

This chapter reviews the literature of juvenile recidivism and provides an in depth analysis of recent evidence from Germany. While the empirical literature shows that transferring juveniles to criminal courts typically leads to higher recidivism in the United States, this result might not be generalizable to other legal systems. Based on a unique sample of inmates in Germany and applying both a bivariate probit and a regression discontinuity design,the authors do not find that the application of criminal law increases juvenile recidivism. Rather, the analysis suggests that sentencing adolescents as adults reduces recidivism in Germany.

Pichler, Stefan and Daniel Römer (2013), The young prisoner’s dilemma: Juvenile recidivism in Germany, in: Philip J. Cook, Stephen Machin, Olivier Marie, Giovanni Mastrobuoni (Eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge, 111-130