Corrections

If a sentence is suspended, has the person been sentenced at all?

Yes. The court fixes a custodial term and then suspends its execution on conditions. German law sets out both halves in a single provision, and the order of the two steps is the thing most descriptions get backwards.

Fact-checkedSafety review clearedLast updated 26 August 2026Last reviewed 26 August 2026

In short

A suspended sentence is a custodial sentence whose execution is held back. The court decides the offence merits a term of imprisonment and fixes that term; it then decides, separately, that the term will not be carried out unless something further happens. Both decisions are real, and the first one is not undone by the second.

Why it exists

AnalysisThe mechanism answers a problem a binary choice cannot. A court may conclude both that an offence is serious enough for custody and that actually imposing custody would achieve less than not imposing it. Without suspension the court must pick one of those conclusions and abandon the other. With it, the court can record the seriousness in the term and act on the assessment in the execution.

How it works

Section 56(1) of the German Criminal Code states the primary case. On a conviction to a custodial sentence of not more than one year, the court setzt die Vollstreckung der Strafe zur Bewährung aus — suspends execution of the sentence on probation — where it is to be expected that the convicted person will let the conviction itself serve as a warning and will commit no further offences even without the influence of imprisonment.

The assessment is not free-form. Section 56(1) directs the court to have regard in particular to the personality of the convicted person, their prior life, the circumstances of the act, their conduct after the act, their circumstances of life, and the effects to be expected from suspension. These overlap substantially with the factors section 46(2) directs the court to weigh in fixing the term in the first place, applied to a different question.

Section 56(2) opens a second, narrower route. The court may suspend a higher custodial sentence not exceeding two years where, on an overall appraisal of the act and the personality of the convicted person, special circumstances are present. The convicted person’s efforts to make good the damage caused are expressly among the considerations.

Common misconceptions

Widely held beliefs that do not match how the system actually operates.

Common belief: A suspended sentence means the person got off without a sentence.
In practice: A custodial term has been fixed. What is suspended is its execution, on stated statutory conditions, with the fixed term held in reserve.
Common belief: The court suspends because it thinks the offence was minor.
In practice: German law puts the seriousness assessment in fixing the term and asks a different question at the suspension stage — whether the person will commit no further offences even without the influence of imprisonment. A serious offence can produce a term the statute still permits to be suspended.
Common belief: Suspension is available for any sentence if the court is persuaded.
In practice: The German provisions are bounded by length: not more than one year under section 56(1), and not exceeding two years under section 56(2), which additionally requires special circumstances on an overall appraisal.
Common belief: Suspended sentence and probation are the same thing.
In practice: The German provision suspends execution "zur Bewährung" — on probation — so the two are connected in that system. But probation names several different arrangements across systems, only one of which is the suspension of a fixed custodial term.

How this varies between jurisdictions

A required section on every guide. Arrangements differ between countries, and we say how.

The German structure has two features worth isolating when comparing systems.

The custodial term is fixed first and suspended second, so the sentence has a quantified content throughout.
The threshold is stated in the statute as a length, not left to judicial assessment of seriousness.
The test at the suspension stage asks what imprisonment would add, not what the offence deserves.

Rights and accountability

AnalysisBecause the term is fixed and recorded, the consequence of breach is knowable in advance rather than determined afterwards. That is a legal-certainty point as much as a corrections one: the person knows what is being held in reserve.

What we could not establish

One system’s provisions are described from primary text. What happens on breach, how supervision during the operational period is conducted, and the conditions a court may attach were not researched here and are not described.
Other systems use the term “suspended sentence” for arrangements that differ from this one. Nothing here describes them.

Where to go next

Is imprisonment the normal outcome of a criminal conviction?
In the systems whose statutes are quoted here, it is the outcome the law tells courts to reach for last. Two legislatures write restraint into the text — one as a principle of sentencing, one as a rule about specific sentence lengths.
What does “probation” actually mean?
Three unrelated things, depending on the system: an organisation, a status attached to a suspended custodial term, and supervision after release from custody. English supplies one word; the statutes do not.
Is being sentenced one decision, or several?
Three, and in some systems three different decision-makers. Brazil gives execution its own judge — the Juízo da Execução — which makes visible a stage most descriptions of criminal justice leave out entirely.

Sources

Strafgesetzbuch (StGB) § 56 — Strafaussetzung (German original text)
Bundesministerium der Justiz / Bundesamt für Justiz (Gesetze im Internet) · Legislation · link verified 2026-08-26
The authoritative German text, read directly. Supports § 56(1): on a conviction to a custodial sentence of not more than one year the court suspends execution of the sentence on probation ("setzt … die Vollstreckung der Strafe zur Bewährung aus") where it is to be expected that the convicted person will let the conviction itself serve as a warning and will commit no further offences even without the influence of imprisonment, having regard in particular to the personality of the convicted person, their prior life, the circumstances of the act, conduct after the act, their circumstances of life, and the effects to be expected from suspension. And § 56(2): the court may suspend a higher custodial sentence not exceeding two years where, on an overall appraisal of the act and the personality of the convicted person, special circumstances are present, with the convicted person's efforts to make good the damage caused expressly among the considerations. Cited for the existence and structure of suspended sentences in German law. It establishes no practice, no frequency, and nothing about any other system.
Strafgesetzbuch (StGB) § 46 — Grundsätze der Strafzumessung (German original text)
Bundesministerium der Justiz / Bundesamt für Justiz (Gesetze im Internet) · Legislation · link verified 2026-08-26
The authoritative German text, read directly. Supports § 46(1): "Die Schuld des Täters ist Grundlage für die Zumessung der Strafe" — the offender's guilt is the basis for determining the sentence — and that the effects to be expected from the sentence for the offender's future life in society are to be taken into account. And § 46(2): in determining sentence the court weighs the circumstances speaking for and against the offender, considering in particular the motives and aims of the offender (expressly including racist, xenophobic, antisemitic, gender-specific, anti-sexual-orientation or otherwise dehumanising motives), the attitude expressed by the act and the will applied to it, the degree of breach of duty, the manner of execution and the culpable effects of the act, the offender's prior life and personal and economic circumstances, and conduct after the act — particularly efforts to make good the damage and to achieve a settlement with the victim. Cited for the German sentencing framework being culpability-based with named factors. It establishes no sentence length for any offence, supports no prediction of any outcome, and describes no other system.