Substantial guarantee of minimum age of juvenile criminal responsibility

Abstract

In Argentina, the valid Law N° 22.278 (1980), it allows the criminal provision of children exempt from criminal responsibility, own of the doctrine of the patronage, contrary to the postulate of the art. 40 inc. 3.a of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). But is most worrying is that in legislative debates of juvenile criminal reform, there is a lack of will to establish a clear rule on what type of state intervention corresponds to children not punishable, which in practice results in the adolescent criminal justice. It is for this reason that the present paper develops the substantial guarantee of minimum age of criminal responsibility, such as construction of the postulate of juvenile criminal law, which restricts the intervention of the repressive system of the state, opting for the prevention of crime by means of the comprehensive protection of their rights.

TEORÍA Y PRAXIS Year 16, No.32, January-May 2018, pp.3-12