Threat in the Senate

Constitution and Justice Commission debates bill to reduce age of criminal responsibility

The CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission) of the Senate approved this morning, June 1, a requirement to hold two public hearings on the Constitutional Amendment Proposal to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 for serious crimes. Amendment 33/12, drafted by Senator Aloysio Nunes, has already received a favorable vote from its sponsor, Senator Ricardo Ferraço, despite having been labeled unconstitutional and demagogic by human rights organizations.

The text lists as serious crimes those described in the Heinous Crimes Law, in addition to premeditated murder, bodily injury resulting in death and repeated aggravated robbery. In these cases, the Public Prosecutor’s Office in each state would have to submit a report asking the judge to reduce the age of criminal responsibility for the young offender.

“Further demonstrating the unconstitutionality of this amendment is the fact that it would allow an entrenched clause – age of criminal responsibility of 18 – to be disregarded based on the whim of a prosecutor or a judge, which is absurd and represents a circumvention of the Federal Constitution,” said Rafael Custódio, coordinator of the Justice program at Conectas.

He said Congress is once again trying to deceive the population by presenting tough legislation as a panacea for crime and insecurity. “All you have to do is look at the data to see that adolescents commit a small minority of crimes and that they are already duly punished in the youth detention system – which needs to improved, not dismantled. If throwing people in prison really had an effect on crime rates, then Brazil would be one of the safest places on earth, since we are one of the countries that imprisons the most,” he added.

According to the Violence Map report, more than half (nearly 30,000) of the 56,000 people murdered in 2012 were young people aged between 15 and 29, which indicates that young people in Brazil, especially poor and black youth (77%), are more frequently the victims of violence than the perpetrators. “The only thing we will achieve by lowering the age of criminal responsibility will be to violate the Constitution, the Child and Adolescent Act and all the international commitments assumed by Brazil in this field,” concluded Custódio.

More than 40 organizations have signed a technical statement criticizing the amendment. In this document, the organizations state that the lawmakers who support lowering the age of criminal responsibility are ignoring the instruments to protect children, the studies on the topic and the position of professionals and experts calling for the effective application of the rights and guarantees contained in the Child and Adolescent Act.

• Click here to read the technical statement released by the organizations.

“We should have learned from the adult prison system that incarcerating hundreds of thousands of people does not make for a safer society,” reads the statement. “The Constitutional Amendment Proposal is nothing more than a populist reaction to the historic and social problem of urban violence in Brazil.”

If approved by the CCJ, the amendment will be voted on the Senate floor, where it will need a qualified majority in two rounds of voting before proceeding to the Lower House of Congress.