Jaime (not his real name) was arrested along with a gang specializing in car theft. He is only 10 years old. The rest of the members, 14 and 15. Due to his young age, Jaime is not imputable, so he was released after being informed by the Family Court and was handed over to a responsible adult.
According to numerous national and international evidence, juvenile delinquency is one of the most relevant phenomena in modern criminology, along with organized crime and gender violence. However, it should be emphasized that in this regard adolescents behave differently from adults due to multifactorial causes, such as experimentation in drug and alcohol use, pressure from their age group and a sense of belonging.
Without going any further, experts in the field maintain that the beginning of the criminal trajectory in children and adolescents is related to drugs, in the first place, and also to the presence of children and adolescents (NNA) in criminal gangs, where they end up making a real criminal career.
What have we done wrong as a society for this Jaime and several others to start committing crimes at such a young age? The absence of a state plan for early social prevention would explain this sad phenomenon, added to the territorial dispute of gangs linked to drug trafficking, which has dangerously settled in different areas of the country to recruit children and young people because they know that they are not imputable judicially.
It is therefore absolutely necessary to act and not to continue to be late. To effectively prevent juvenile delinquency, it is necessary, first of all, for society as a whole to ensure the harmonious development of children and adolescents, and to respect and cultivate their personality from early childhood.
But progress must also be made in the formulation of specialized doctrines and criteria for the prevention of juvenile delinquency, based on laws, processes, institutions, facilities and a network of services, whose purpose is to reduce the reasons, necessity and opportunities for the commission of offences or the conditions conducive to them.
Community-based services and programmes for the prevention of juvenile delinquency should also be established. Only ultimately should official social control bodies be used.
Finally, part of the long-term solution lies in reducing the levels of inequality in the country. To this end, it is pertinent to carry out recuperative measures – for example, generating job opportunities and improving access and quality of education, especially in the most vulnerable sectors – for greater efficiency in its effects, in contrast to the punitive current, where existing inequalities tend to increase at the country level.
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The content expressed in this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
