MINORS TRIED AS ADULTS VS. THE HUMANITARIAN SYSTEM OF EDUCATIONAL MEASURES – WHAT IS PREFERABLE?

S. I. Damian, M. M. Diac, A. Scripcaru, D. B. Iliescu,

Abstract: According to the rules of general criminal law currently in force, the Romanian Penal Code adopts a sanctioning regime based on humanitarian principles for the sanctioning of minors, that is, based on educational measures and not on punishments. According to this system, juveniles have an undeveloped psyche and therefore their level of real awareness of the implications of their delinquent acts is reduced due to lack of experience, therefore more emphasis must be placed on reformation, education and extraction from the criminological environment in their sanctioning, and less on punishment and repression. On the other hand, the American legal system considers that where the adult’s discernment begins, the state of minority ends. According to this system, if the minor’s psyche is sufficiently well developed so that they realize, like an adult does, all the implications of their criminal behavior, then the differentiation in sanctioning is no longer justified, and the minor can be tried and punished in the same way as an adult offender. In the forensic practice in Romania, there are frequent cases of minors whose ability to realize the gravity and consequences of their actions is as well formed as that of an adult. This work aims to analyze the appropriateness and effectiveness of the criminal sanctioning system for minors exclusively through educational measures, compared to the increase in the number of minor offenders, the seriousness of the criminal acts committed by minors, the lack of effectiveness of the sanctioning regime based exclusively on educational measures against minor repeated offenders, as well as by referring to the medical reality that emerges from the forensic evaluations carried out on such minors who have committed acts provided for by the criminal law.
Keywords: educational measures, punishments, juvenile offenders, major offenders, minors tried as adults.