Penalties for juveniles - Measures of protection

Data on court-ordered sentences and measures of protection stated in a judgment have been available in the JUSUS and JUSAS databases since 1999. Since 2020, figures have also been available for provisional measures of protection ordered.

The following sanctions can be imposed under juvenile law: Custodial sentence, personal performance (community service), fines or a caution. An exemption from punishment can also be pronounced. The following (provisional) measures can be imposed: placement in a closed or open institution, outpatient treatment, individual care and supervision.

Main sanctions, measures and pre-trial detention, 2022

Total convictions with main sanction1	20 797
Custodial sentence	988
unsuspended	383
partially suspended	63
suspended	542
Personal performance	6 258
unsuspended	4 326
partially suspended	711
suspended	1 213
Fine only	5 688
unsuspended	5 018
partially suspended	151
suspended	519
Caution	7 379
Measures only	12
Exemption from punishment	465
Total verdicts with measures	383
inpatient measures	67
outpatient measures	316

Source: Statistics on criminal convictions and enforcement of juvenile sanctions (JUSAS), state of the database: 26.05.2023

¹ One main sanction is established per verdict and this is the only one shown in the table. For this reason sanctions are ranked according to their severity and only the most severe sanction is shown. A custodial sentence is considered to be the most severe sanction for minors, followed by personal performance, fines, cautions and lastly exemption from punishment.

Out-patient protection measure (provisional order)

With the new JUSAS statistics, the FSO receives all the provisional decisions pronounced in application of the Swiss Criminal Code for minors. Among the provisional measures of protection ordered, the FSO distinguishes between those that lead to placements outside the family and those keeping the juvenile offenders in their family. The below table shows these information.

Persons concerned by an out-patient protection measure (provisional order), 2022

Total	295
Out-patient monitoring	6
Monitoring	18
Personal assistance	142
Out-patient treatment	107
Contact and geographical ban without EM	19
Contact and geographical ban with EM	7

Source: Statistics on criminal convictions and enforcement of juvenile sanctions (JUSAS), state of the database: 26.05.2023

Further information

Tables

Tables on juvenile sanctions

All tables on the topic Criminal justice

Publications

Publication to be downloaded in German

Publication to be downloaded in French

All publications on the topi Criminal justice

Press Releases

Historical data

Historical data on minors and adults 1946-1984

The Federal Statistical Office's collection of data on the convictions of minors and adults is based on extracts from the centrally managed register of convictions. This statistic has been compiled since 1946, and partially with data from 1936. For the years prior to 1948, statistical results are available in the form of tables, copies of which can be consulted or downloaded.

The continuation of the historical time series for minors can be found for the years 1984-1998 under "Historical data, minors, 1984-1998".

Detailed data on the convictions of minors from 1999 onwards are available on the Swiss Statistics website. Detailed conviction figures for adults are available for the years from 1984 onwards.

The historical conviction data cannot be compared with one another nor with data from the current data collection. Data must first be harmonised and aligned with population data.

Publication to be downloaded in German

Publication to be downloaded in French

Data are available in the form of annual reports in German and French only and can be downloaded on the pages Jugendstrafen - Schutzmassnahmen or Peines pour mineurs - Mesures de protection.

Historical data on minors 1985-1998

The information published by the Federal Statistical Office on the criminal judgements of minors is based on three statistical surveys, each one different in the way it collects and compiles data and also in how data is used and presented. Data from the first survey is contained in tables relating to criminal judgements of minors and adults passed between 1946 (partly from 1936) and 1984.

These tables were compiled on the basis of records in the criminal register. Since 1971, criminal judgements of minors have no longer been automatically recorded in the criminal register; the decision was made to discontinue this first survey. The second survey consists of aggregated data collected between 1984 and 1998. The third comes from data used in the current statistics on criminal judgements of minors. This survey has existed since 1999 and is now published with the adult convictions.

The data on the criminal judgements of minors shown below cannot be compared directly with data from the other surveys. Data must first be harmonised (see document on metadata) and then correlated with data from the corresponding age groups.
 
The publication on the evolution of the juvenile delinquency and pdf files are available in german or in french:

Publication to be downloaded in German

Publication to be downloaded in French

Data are available in the form of annual reports in German and French only and can be downloaded on the pages Jugendstrafen - Schutzmassnahmen or Peines pour mineurs - Mesures de protection.

Statistical sources and concepts

Surveys