Rapporteur argues for lowering criminal responsibility age to 16

Deputy Laerte Bessa, rapporteur of the Constitutional Amendment Bill 171, or PEC 171, which prescribes the reduction of the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16, currently under debate at the Chamber of Deputies, argues for the reduction regardless of the law infringement committed. The change can be found in the report that the congressman is due to present on Wednesday (Jun 10) to the commission specially created to discuss the amendment.

If Bessa's report is approved, PEC 171 moves on for vote at a plenary session at the Chamber of Deputies. If this happens, the ruling Workers' Party (PT), which opposes the bill, has declared it would request to peruse the congressman's document, thus postponing the ballot.

PT head at the Lower House Deputy Sibá Machado thinks there is still a small chance the vote on PEC 171 is held this semester, but he believes it is important that deputies feel confident enough about the topic before casting a ballot. “This is not a poker game. We're dealing with lives here. First we have to ask ourselves: What kind of problem can imprisonment actually solve? You can't put everything in the same boat,” he said.

Sibá admits he sees improvements in the bill drafted by the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), which cuts down the age of criminal responsibility only in cases of more serious crimes. “I think we're heading towards a more representative text,” he noted.

In Bessa's view, however, reducing the age of criminal responsibility to 16 years old does not abolish or harm any of an adolescent's fundamental rights, nor does it overlook any constitutional principle. “We may no longer allow that 16- or 17-year-olds, fully endowed with understanding, feel as if they had safe conduct to do all sorts of barbarism,” the congressman's report reads. He also suggests that, in an attempt to know the population's view on the matter, a referendum should be held along with the next elections.

In another excerpt of the document, the congressman says that when both the family and the State fail to prevent a youth from leading a criminal life, it is the duty of the public powers to carry out the appropriate policies for maintaining order. “We wouldn't deny that the solution for the serious problem of crime comes chiefly with increasing the scope and the efficiency of social, educational, cultural, and employment programs. […] Nonetheless, the members of this House must not avert their ears from the legitimate outcry of Brazilian Society, which has demanded the fair punishment of adolescents that commit serious crimes and go unpenalized,” the deputy states.

He further notes that young people in Brazil may already be punished as of the age of 12 with socio-educational measures. As per Bessa's proposal, a youth in conflict with the law will no longer be tried by the specialized juvenile courts. Rather, they would be heard by common courts, as would any adult. He maintains, however, that youths and adults should be kept in separate cells in prison facilities.

“Of course, adolescents will only be arrested in cases of serious crimes,” argues the deputy, who believes the punishment set forth in the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent (ECA in its Portuguese acronym) are “exceedingly lenient,” and should be “adjusted in order to check the growth of juvenile crime in our society.”

Carolina Gonçalves contributed to this article.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira