Locking them up and preferably forever - Time and again, despite all criminological and educational insights, there are discussions in the press, politics, and even in academia about whether youth crime can be countered with a more repressive approach. In such discussions, it is often forgotten that such demands are in direct contradiction to the legally enshrined educational mandate of juvenile criminal law. Nevertheless, such a backward understanding of juvenile criminal law is hardly surprising, as a closer examination of juvenile detention, the most severe form of sanction in juvenile criminal law, reveals that in this institution, which is set up for punishment, educational efforts play at best a subordinate role.