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.
Highlights
Legal status of a minor and its legal responsibilities are topic relevant for all branches of law
The question of maturity that can lead to conclusion that somebody is responsible and guilty for the committing of a criminal act is an individual matter
minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) is an intention of diverting individual state of mind to a general rule
Summary
Legal status of a minor and its legal responsibilities are topic relevant for all branches of law. Minors can perpetrate crimes, even in very cruel way, and society couldn’t ignore that fact It had to be decided whether minors would be included in criminal law system; if yes, what age limit of criminal responsibility would be the most appropriable and what would it be the best form of states’ reaction to their offences. The choice of criminal sanctions is much different from those that are to be imposed to adult This concept is well explained by Čejović stating that persons under MACR are not able to understand the significance of their actions and to coordinate with them, so the committed act isn’t result of their asocial attitude but a result of lack of the control
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