With the approval of the decree against juvenile delinquency by the cabinet on Thursday evening, it will be easier for a minor to go to jail. According to the information on the Palazzo Chigi website, this provision reduces the maximum sentence from 9 years to 6 years for “continuation of detention, red-handed arrest and precautionary detention of persons over the age of 14 for intentional crimes”. Until now, minors were subject to pre-trial detention in cells only for serious crimes, such as murder (actually serving a 9-year prison sentence); now this possibility is also foreseen if the crimes are less serious. as aggravated robbery.
Not just. The decree provides that the detention, arrest and precautionary detention of a minor may also be ordered for certain other offenses: gross theft, carrying weapons or criminal objects, violence or threats to a public official, resisting a public official, drug production and trafficking. Another innovation is the reduction of the maximum sentence from five to three years for offenses for which minors can be taken to the barracks or the police station.
Prosecution of minors does not change age
Instead, the government abandoned the idea of lowering the age of prosecution of minors from 14 to 12. Today, Article 97 of the Penal Code states that a minor “who has not yet turned fourteen at the time of the crime” cannot be “claimed”. Therefore, in these cases, the minor cannot be held responsible for a specific crime and cannot be punished. The following clause states that if the age is between 14 and 18, fees can only be charged if the “capacity to understand and want” has been ascertained.
After the brutal murder of 24-year-old musician Giovanbattista Cutolo in Naples by a 17-year-old teenager (even) the blaming of minors has resurfaced. The alleged murderer would also have a history of attempted murder charges, but the young man was not charged precisely because of his age. And so the crime (or presumed crime) went unpunished.
In recent days, the government has seriously considered but reconsidered the idea of lowering the prosecution threshold. “No action was taken on the imputability of the minor,” Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio said at a press conference. said. “All this would be against the benefit and not done.” According to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in the decree, “There is no such thing as the imprisonment of 12-year-old children, even for some crimes that have not been foreseen until now, we foresee arrest in the law. 14 to 18 years old: Because today a 15-year-old child cannot be arrested if he walks around with a loaded gun. And frankly, I don’t think this can be resolved in the current situation.”
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Source: Today IT
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
