Czech Prosecutor General Lenka Bradaczova came out Sunday in favor of lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13. She cited a growing number of violent crimes committed by juveniles.
“Youth crime is not increasing, but the nature of the crimes they commit is changing: from theft toward violent crimes,” Bradaczova said on Czech public television.
The Justice Ministry is also discussing lowering the age of criminal responsibility. Minister Jeronym Tejc believes such a change could apply, for example, to crimes that carry the harshest penalty in the Czech Republic, life imprisonment.
Bradaczova stressed that any lowering of the age of criminal responsibility below 15 must go hand in hand with changes to youth correctional institutions, whose current system, in her view, does not function properly. She said a reform is needed so that children in difficult life circumstances are not housed in the same facilities as juvenile perpetrators of serious crimes. In Bradaczova’s assessment, her ministry’s efforts must be accompanied by action from other ministries, chiefly health and education.
Currently, people under 15 cannot be criminally prosecuted, but courts can impose protective measures on them, including placement in youth correctional institutions.
From Prague, Piotr Górecki (PAP)
