THE MINORS IN PENAL SYSTEMS IN SELECTED COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

In foreign jurisdictions, various models of responsibility for juvenile offenses are adopted. In many countries, like Poland, entirely separate regulations in this field are adopted (England and Wales, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Scotland, Switzerland, Sweden). In other countries like (Slovakia, Belarus, Estonia, Greece to 2003, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine), there are specific rules of responsibility of minors included in criminal codes and codes of criminal proceedings. Different solutions in this regard are partly due to the different traditions of legal systems, and partly due to various axiomatic justifications formulated in these matters. Review of legislation on minority in selected European countries: Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic shows that in terms of the approach to the problem of minority in all legal systems, specific interaction of children and young people who come into conflict with the criminal law are included, as well as those that show signs of corruption, making their proper personal and social development threatened. Adoption of selected concepts of minors legislation, however, does not mean more or less severe approach to the liability of minors.Both discussed issues the theoretical and practical ones, are the subject of the deliberations beneath, their structure includes: <br/>1. Problems of minors in the European countries <br/>2. Minors in Polish criminal justice system <br/>3. Minors’ responsibility in Slovakian criminal justice system <br/> 4. Czech criminal justice system in relation to a minor