The crimes committed by children and adolescents in Mexico they don’t give up While in 2022, 30.2 percent of young people in the Comprehensive Criminal Justice System for Adolescents (SIJPA) complied with a sanction of internment for criminal actsIn 2017, the figure was 17 percent.
The precariousness, relatives linked to prison issues, drug or alcohol use and the absence of public programs to prevent the incidence are previous factors presented by children and adolescents in this condition, highlighted for THE DEBATE Juan Martín Pérez, lawyer and activist.
Findings
Since 2017, this is the second time that the Inegi has carried out the National Survey of Adolescents in the Criminal Justice System (Enasjup), which covers the 45 detention centers in the 32 federal entities.
Despite the increase in the percentage of hospitalized adolescents and children, it should be noted that in a comparison carried out by THE DEBATE According to the Inegi data, there was a general decrease in the population of young people in the Comprehensive Criminal Justice System for Adolescents (SIJPA) from 2017 to 2022. That is, while in 2022, at the national level there was a population of 3 thousand 413 in the SIJPA; in 2017 there were 6 thousand 891 young people. In addition, in 2022, 56.5 percent were serving a sanction measure in hospitalization, while in 2017, 65 percent were serving their sanction at home.
crimes
According to the 2022 data presented a few days ago, of the total population of adolescent women in the SIJPA, 63.2 percent complied with a measure of sanction in externation and 27.6 percent, one of internment. In the case of men, 55.9 complied with a sanction in discharge and 30 percent had been hospitalized. Of the population of adolescents in the SIJPA, 31 percent were between 16 and 17 years old and 47.4 percent were between 18 and 22 years of age.
The figures also show that At the national level, 21.0 percent of the adolescent population in the Comprehensive Criminal Justice System stated that robbery was the first criminal conduct committed, followed by rape, homicide, illegal possession of weapons and illegal drug trade. Of the adolescents in the SIJPA who were prosecuted, 22.5 percent were initially prosecuted for the crime of rape and 21.8 percent for robbery.
Violence
The Inegi acknowledges in its survey that in 2022, 45.9 percent of the adolescent population that was in the SIJPA suffered some type of physical aggression at the time of their arrest. At this point, he clarifies that 25.7 percent of this group was detained by the municipal police; a 24.9, for the ministerial police, and a 12.7 for the state police. 32.0 percent of the population of adolescents in the SIJPA, with a measure of internment, was the victim of some crime within the internment center in the last year.
Juan Martín Pérez, coordinator of Tejiendo Redes Infancia in Latin America and the Caribbean, added in an interview that the data referred to in the Inegi survey are worrying not only because prevention has not been learned, but also by the way in which children and adolescents are treated when they are linked to a criminal act.
Policies
The lawyer and activist emphasized that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights estimates that all this involvement of adolescents in conflict with the law can be prevented. In addition, it is considered that depriving them of their liberty is not the best decision that can be made, especially when they are not high-impact crimes.
“It is that in that stage of adolescence, when they are looking for identity, belonging and socialization networks, we literally leave them in prison circuits or linked to crime,” he explained.
At this point, Juan Martín Pérez added that when children and adolescents are deprived of liberty, 80 percent reoffend, against only 20 percent of recidivism in the case of those who remain at large.
In accordance with the law, he estimated that as long as they are not high-impact crimes, minors can be accompanied with socio-educational measures from the community, the family, the school.
To understand…
Reform of 2022, the last movement in the Senate
Despite the incidence of irregularities and violations of human rights for more than three years by the National Human Rights Commission and Coneval, until November 2022, the Mexican Senate endorsed a reform to the National Law of the Comprehensive Criminal Justice System for Adolescents.
Changes
Unanimously, with 78 votes in favor, it was approved that adolescents in social readaptation centers receive psychological care. In addition, it obliges the authorities to offer specialized medical treatment. On a specific point, it adds that girls, boys and adolescents in hospitalization can visit on their deathbed those who had their homeland protested, were their tutors or caregivers.
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