Minors before a judge: the far right pushes for tougher juvenile justice
From Scandinavia to Latin America, proposals to toughen penalties for adolescents are gaining ground, despite the reservations of experts and organizations dedicated to child protection.
On a cold afternoon last November, a 12-year-old girl got on a bus in Gothenburg with two hand grenades hidden in her sweatshirt. For over an hour she travelled 60 kilometres to carry out a job she had accepted through social media. “I don’t think they’re going to give me the money. I completely messed up,” the teenager wrote to a friend after throwing the devices without enough force against the home they had indicated as the target.
She did not receive the 80,000 Swedish crowns (around €7,300) they had promised her, but nor did she receive any punishment: she was too young to be held accountable. Her case made the headlines right in the middle of a debate on whether Sweden should lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13 in order to combat gang violence.
Translated by urgent.news. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
