Starosna granica krivične odgovornosti - uporednopravna analiza

Abstract

U radu se izlaže komparativan prikaz minimalne starosne granice krivične odgovornosti u nizu država, pri čemu se skreće pažnja i na druga važna pitanja iz domena materijalnog i procesnog krivičnog prava, a koja proizilaze iz starosti učinioca krivičnog dela, odnosno lica prema kome se vodi krivični postupak. Autor je svoje izlaganje podelio na nekoliko osnovnih celina, tako da prvo, analizira dominantne karakteristike uzrasta kao kriterijuma u krivičnom pravu, da bi potom, izneo niz uporedno pravnih primera, podeljenih na evropske i vanevropske države, završavajući svoje izlaganje prezentiranjem tabele koja se odnosi na starosnu granicu krivične odgovornosti u velikom broju država, uz zaključak o naglašenoj relativnosti te granice.

The age of a criminal perpetrator (at the time of the crime - tempore criminis) is a vital component in determining criminal responsibility in contemporary criminal law systems. A determined age minimum is defined as a necessary precondition (conditio sine qua non) for a criminal perpetrator to be criminally responsible, to open a criminal proceeding against him, and if necessary normative conditions are met, sentence and execute the prescribed criminal sanctions. Comparative legal analyses of the question of age limits for criminal responsibility shows that different solutions are applied throughout the world, from very low limit determinations (even seven years like in Ireland, or eight years in Scotland, ten years in England and Wells), to relatively high determinations of this limit, at eighteen years, like in Belgium and Mexico. Independently of determined age limits, even in countries with low determinations, sanctions against very young perpetrators are not as harsh as they would be for grownups (with a drastic exception in the case of the United States where most federation members can even sentence children to death), while even in countries with relatively high limits there are available separate proceedings for underage perpetrators.