Could the terrorist attack on Berlin's Pride celebrations, allegedly by a 21-year-old Islamist, have been prevented? This question has been the subject of debate driven largely by the fact that the young German man — born in Germany in 2005 to parents of Lebanese origin — had been convicted and released just weeks before the attack.

Abdul Ballout, who drove his car into a crowd in Berlin's Tiergarten park — killing one woman and injuring 31 people, some seriously — had set out last year intending to join the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) terrorist group in Syria. However, he was arrested en route in Lebanon, detained there and subsequently deported to Germany.

Back in Germany, he stood trial on charges of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state. He was found guilty and sentenced in mid-May to 22 months in prison, but this sentence was initially suspended. He was released — and attacked Berlin Pride just weeks later. The day after the incident, he was shot dead by police while they were attempting to arrest him.

Juvenile sentencing can be applied to up to 20-year-olds because the brain is still developing at that age

Since then, juvenile criminal law in Germany has been the focus of criticism. Terrorism expert Peter Neumann from King's College London told the news portal T-Online: "This is a real problem. The sentences are too lenient. In my view, juvenile criminal law is sometimes interpreted too broadly. The protection of the public is not given sufficient consideration."

Juvenile criminal law serves special purposes, says Frieder Dünkel, a criminologist and criminal law expert from Greifswald. "It's primarily about education, about the reintegration of the young person," he told DW.

Judges have considerable leeway and can hand out admonitions or prison sentences. 

In Germany, a perpetrator is criminally responsible from age 14 and juvenile criminal law applies. From the age of 18, regular criminal law generally applies, with higher minimum sentences.  But juvenile criminal law can also be applied to young adults aged 18 to 20 if they show "developmental delays."

"This is because overall, one can still recognize significant developmental potential in 18- to 20-year-olds," Dünkel said.

This is backed by neuroscientific findings, according to Dünkel, showing that the brain areas responsible for behavioral control do not fully develop until the middle of the third decade of life. This implies that a young offender can still change for the better.

In May, Abdul Ballout was sentenced by the Berlin court under juvenile criminal law, even though he was already 21 at the time of his sentencing. However, he was only 20 years old when he committed the crimes he was found guilty of.

'Preliminary probation' for Ballout

Ballout was able to leave the courthouse because he had been granted six months of "preliminary probation," after which the court would have had to make a final decision on whether he needed to go to prison. He was initially placed under intermittent police surveillance until the police officers concluded that he was behaving unobtrusively.

He was ordered to participate in an exit program for extremists, where he attended two preliminary meetings to determine whether he was indeed willing to critically examine his behavior and distance himself from extremism.

Preliminary probation is a relatively new concept in Germany's criminal law and was introduced in 2012. Frieder Dünkel believes that the mechanism has been successful in many cases. 

"Specifically, when a juvenile court judge is unsure whether a sentence can or should be suspended in favor of probation, the judge orders a period of up to six months during which the young person is guided toward a law-abiding lifestyle through strict directives and monitoring measures," Dünkel explained.

German interior minister wants to reform juvenile criminal law

In the aftermath of the Berlin Pride attack, there have been calls to stop applying the more lenient juvenile criminal law to Islamist or right-wing extremist perpetrators.

But criminologist Dünkel disagrees: "It is not the role of juvenile criminal law to provide preventive protection for society before a crime has even been committed. Juvenile criminal law responds to crimes once they have been committed," he says.

Juvenile criminal law does allow for severe penalties; for instance, a murder conviction can result in a 15-year prison sentence for offenders aged 18 to 20.

Dünkel adds that recidivism rates among perpetrators sentenced under juvenile criminal law are no higher than among those sentenced under adult criminal law.

"Harsher penalties do not lead to greater security," he said.

Nevertheless, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) has announced his intention to examine ways to reform juvenile criminal law.

Konstantin von Notz, the opposition Green Party's expert on internal affairs disagrees with that approach. 

"We... note that virtually all experts consulted on this matter so far point out that long prison sentences — especially for young adults — can have a counterproductive effect and may even accelerate existing radicalization," von Notz said.

Information sharing glitch

Ballout had been classified as a dangerous individual by Germany's Joint Counter-Terrorism Center (GTAZ). The GTAZ is a coordination and communication platform established in 2004, after the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States, to combat Islamist terrorism through inter-agency information sharing.

However, the assessment of Ballout did not reach the Berlin court that handed down the lenient sentence earlier this year. If the information had been shared, Ballout may have remained incarcerated.

This article has been translated from German.