Substantial guarantee of minimum age of juvenile criminal responsibility

Abstract

In Argentina, Law No. 22.278 (1980), still in force, allows the criminal disposition of children exempt from criminal responsibility, in line with the doctrine of patronage, contrary to the postulate of art. 40, para. 3.a of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). But the most worrying thing is that in the legislative debates on juvenile criminal reform, there is a lack of will to establish clear regulations on what type of state intervention corresponds to non-punishable children, which in practice leads to adolescent criminal justice. This is why this paper develops the substantial guarantee of the minimum age of criminal responsibility, as a postulate for the construction of juvenile criminal law, which limits the intervention of the repressive system of the state, opting for crime prevention through the comprehensive protection of their rights.