Originally Posted by
Annu
If you don't know the German law system, you should better keep out of such discussions.
There is no "until you are old enough to server your sentence" in Germany. If you are underage, your maximum sentence is reduced by 50% and the minimum is lifted completely. So if a crime for adults foresees 10-20 years of prison, a underage teenagers gets 0-10 years. Even worse, first time convictions are typically close to the minimum, even if they include multiple victims. This is especially true if the crime consists of violence and is not against property (you can easily see the priorities here). So if an adult gets 1 year above minimum it is 11 years, the underage equivalent is 1 year.
In Germany, if your sentence is below a certain threshold and it is your first conviction, you have the right (yes, the right) to get the sentence on bail. As underage reduces the sentence so much, it is nearly impossible that the first crime gets a teenager into prison.
The only exception is typically murder. With murder you can easily get the maximum sentence on your first conviction, no matter if you are of age or not.