A system with a vocation for reform ?: The Law of Criminal Responsibility of Minors

Abstract

The 5/2000 Act that regulates the penal responsibility of juveniles was published the 12 of January 2000. This Act was presented as the definite text that could rend stability to the juvenile Spanish criminal policy. Nevertheless, after five years we are contemplating its fourth reform. Although there is no evidence of any significant increment in the official data of juvenile delinquency, the legislator tries to stop a fictitious rise of this kind of behaviour with the proposal of new legal modifications. These modifications mean to use new criteria to apply the measures and the definite incorporation of the victims to a system that should be prevailed exclusively by the minor’s interest. Looking at the practical application of the law, showed in this paper, we could conclude that tendencies are changing, and that the judicial practice during the last five years has become contaminated by the more punitive climax that is pervading the criminal policy of the country.