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Continuity and Change in the Spanish Juvenile Justice System

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International Handbook of Juvenile Justice

Abstract

Spain is one of the Mediterranean countries that belong to the EU. It is the third biggest country in Europe, behind Russia and France, with a surface of 504.782 km2. According to the National Institute of Statistics, there were 43,026,982 inhabitants by January 2004; i.e., the mean population density is of 86 inhabitants/km2. Nevertheless, there is a great inequality in the distribution of the population among regions. Most of the people live in the coastal regions and in big urban agglomerations; i.e., the region of Madrid has 724 inhabitants/km2, while Castilla-La Mancha, an inland region, has 23 inhabitants/km2 only.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Art. 4 of JCA allowed juveniles between 18 and 21 years, under some circumstances, to be judged by the Juvenile Court, to get the benefits of a more lenient system. However, this article was suspended, initially, for a period of two years by OL 9/2000 of 22 December. This period has been extended recently to last until 2007 by a new OL 9/2002 of 10 December.

  2. 2.

    We do not want to enter into a controversy, but in a world where the trend is frequently for younger children to be considered as criminals, the new Act has increased the age for criminal responsibility of juveniles. In the Netherlands young people of 16 and 17 can be treated as adults (Junger-Tas, 1998), and in the UK the 1998 reform considered that a child of 10 can be responsible (Muncie, 2004).

  3. 3.

    The Criminal Act of 1995 established that 18 was the age for criminal majority. However, this same text also said that this would not be put into effect until an act was passed for juvenile criminal responsibility that would imply the definitive reform so needed by the Spanish Juvenile Justice System. That is, the age for criminal majority would not be changed from 16 (the age established by the former criminal act) to 18 (established by the new criminal act) until this new act was passed.

  4. 4.

    These data are supplied by the National Police, that is, the number of arrests by the Autonomic or Local Police is not mentioned (except for the Basque Country which is included).

  5. 5.

    In Spain, Catalonia and the Basque Country are the regions that have Autonomous Police. As has already been mentioned, the data regarding the Basque Country Police are included.

  6. 6.

    In research carried out at the Juvenile Courts of the Autonomous Community of Castilla La-Mancha, we could verify that 77.3% of the cases are reported to the National Police (Criminology Research Centre, 2003).

  7. 7.

    In 1997, the police started a new information gathering system, so as to avoid any distortion of the information that could be caused by the different measurement instruments; the number of arrests before this year has been ignored.

  8. 8.

    For reference, check http://www.cnice.mecd.es/recursos2/convivencia_escolar/

  9. 9.

    For reference, check http://wwwn.mec.es/cide/jsp/plantillaIn.jsp?id=inn03

  10. 10.

    Specifically, it refers to the enforcement of the Juvenile Protection Act, which is the Act that designs the state juvenile protection system and the corresponding acts in the Autonomous Communities where the juvenile might come from. Since Spain is a quasi-federal state, regional governments have transferred competences in some fields, like it is the case of juvenile protection.

  11. 11.

    Pre-trial detention is the temporary and safe custody of a juvenile who is accused of a serious crime (never for minor offences) while pending legal action. The maximum length of custody is 3 months (the time limit for the prosecutor's investigation of the case). If the case is very complicated the maximum length can be 6 months.

  12. 12.

    The data in this analysis are from a study carried out in the Juvenile Courts, and that is why we cannot access the information regarding the files dismissed by the Prosecutor since they are never referred to the Court, and so remain the Prosecutor's work in his Office.

  13. 13.

    The Government established a vacatio legis of a year for the system to prepare itself for change. During this period, a new legislature gave absolute majority to the Government.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Law Faculty at the Univesity of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain

    Cristina Rechea Alberola

  2. University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

    Esther Fernández Molina

Authors
  1. Cristina Rechea Alberola
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  2. Esther Fernández Molina
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Josine Junger-Tas

  2. Arizona State University, USA

    Scott H. Decker

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Alberola, C.R., Molina, E.F. (2006). Continuity and Change in the Spanish Juvenile Justice System. In: Junger-Tas, J., Decker, S.H. (eds) International Handbook of Juvenile Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4970-6_13

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