Teeven starts an adolescent criminal law pilot
The adolescent criminal law pilot is starting today in Almelo. In anticipation of the legislative proposal, State Secretary Teeven (Security and Justice) intends to use the pilot to shape the flexible system of adolescent criminal law.
During the pilot, the probation and aftercare workers and agency investigators from the Child Care and Protection Agency will jointly draw up a recommendation for the suspected adolescent to be used by the Public Prosecution Service and the court. The juvenile's development phase will be dealt with explicitly, so that the Public Prosecution Service and the court can properly assess whether a sanction should be imposed on the basis of juvenile or adult criminal law. In order to provide concrete starting points in practice, criteria have been developed that serve as a guideline for drawing up the recommendation. The recommendation will also always explicitly indicate which party will perform the probation and aftercare service supervision and the assistance.
The pilot will last for six months. Following the pilot, an analysis will be carried out to establish whether the criteria that have been developed require adjustment and how cooperation between the juvenile and adult criminal law chain can best be shaped. A second pilot will start in Groningen in November.
Adolescent criminal law offers better opportunities for effective alignment with the juvenile’s developmental phase when determining the punishment. In principle, the entire package of sanctions from juvenile criminal law and common criminal law is available for punishing criminal adolescents. Adolescent criminal law is part of State Secretary Teeven's efforts to establish an offender-oriented and coherent approach to criminal juveniles. Juveniles who commit serious violent or sex crimes should not be able to get away with merely a community service order. In addition, Electronic Surveillance has to be used - more than before - with respect to juveniles and the courts will be able to convert a PIJ measure (placement in a correctional institution for juvenile offenders) into a TBS measure in exceptional cases. Teeven is awaiting the recommendation of the Council of State concerning the legislative proposal.
