Legal Challenges in Regulation of Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility Cover Image

Legal Challenges in Regulation of Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility
Legal Challenges in Regulation of Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility

Author(s): Goran Šimić, Ena Kazić
Subject(s): Criminal Law, Criminology
Published by: International University of Sarajevo
Keywords: Minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR); juveniles; criminal responsibility; punishability;

Summary/Abstract: Every minor can commit a criminal act, but in formal sense not every minor will be criminally responsible. Even if committing an act that in material sense have its consequences and all objective elements of a crime, possibility for imposing of criminal sanctions is still determined by minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR). When reaching into certain age minors are held to be criminally responsible and punishable. This article is focusing to the matter of establishment of minimum age of criminal responsibility, so comparative review of systems for its establishment and contemporary world tendencies will be discussed in it. In particular, this paper will be devoted to the establishment of MACR in Bosnia and Herzegovina from both historical and positive law insight. The age from which one will be held criminally responsible is an issue predisposed by several factors and choosing the optimum age will be discussed as the challenging question in this paper because it includes or excludes minors from the reach of criminal justice system that has unquestionable impact in their future life.

  • Issue Year: 10/2017
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 43-55
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English