Treatment of Juvenile Delinquency in the European Union

Abstract

In the light of European and international regulations, the analysis of the treatment applicable to minors must provide consistency, but also stability and predictability in the treatment of minors who have committed criminal offenses, a response of a criminal and non-criminal nature, oriented mainly on the education and social integration of minors, which means a protective treatment, without prejudice to the aspects of a procedural nature. In this context of the homogenization of criminal justice systems, the possibility of the European Union adopting a single policy on the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency is undoubtedly a desideratum which has given rise to lively debate on the need for a European criminal law, with a description of criminal concepts and the corresponding criminal law responses, given that the exclusive competence of Member States to criminalize certain acts in criminal law has been respected. At the same time, the countries that have been granted candidate status are subject to the need to fulfill the conditions concerning the legal system (including the justice system), which also implies special provisions regarding minors who commit crimes. The broad concept of European integration sometimes also covers substantive law provisions, including the nature of the sanction applicable to minors and its particular limits. As the general rule in the European Union is that the best interests of the child are taken as the primary aim, this study proposes a sequential approach to these concepts that could be useful to the candidate states in the pre-accession negotiations in reconfiguring juvenile justice systems.

Received: 20 April 2025 / Accepted: 2 June 2025 / Published: 25 June 2025