Adequacy of the New Terminology in the Law for Justice for Children
Abstract
The proper determination on the age limit to determine whether one is a juvenile or an adult is more than necessary in any area of legislation, especially in the area of criminal justice. This is not only to determine whether one can be held accountable for his criminal actions, but also to give him the rights that the juveniles have when they breach the law (such as special criminal procedure for minors, special types of sanctions etc.) The first codification of the juvenile criminal and criminal procedure law into one code (the former Law for juvenile justice) in 2007 was a big step forward in the juvenile criminal legislation. But after only six years was it completely revised into the new Law for justice for children. This was certainly necessary and a part of the complete change of the Law of criminal procedure. This law includes the delineation of the age limit and the gradation of criminal responsibility depending of the age and the type of crime and the criminal sentence that can be imposed for that kind of crime. The new Law also replaces the term minor with the term child. The purpose of this paper is to answer whether it was necessary to change the relevant terminology that relates to the main subject in this Law from the term the minor to the term used in the new law, the child and how this new term is nebulous in practice and in literature because of its imprecision and its extensity.
Key words: juvenile, minor, child, law, criminal, crime.
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References
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